Manuel Selman and Lucas Santamaria make the Round 2 cut at San Miguel Pro Zarautz
Chile’s Manuel Selman and Argentina’s Lucas Santamaria advanced through into Round 2 at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz after grabbing the win in their respective Round 1 (Round of 144) heats that went down at the main event site of Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Wednesday, August 29.
Brazil’s Luel Felipe and New Zealand’s Ricardo Christie managed to secure their place in the next round of the competition as well after doing well to get a second-place finish.
The huge crowd comprising of local fans of the sport had plenty of reason to expect a series of exciting battles as the up-and-coming surfing talent from around the globe continued to take each other on in four-man battles for survival, determined to stay alive in the event to eventually get their hands on the coveted prize cheque as well as ever-so-important ASP ranking points on offer.
The 19th heat saw Selman battle it out with Felipe, Portugal’s Joao Guedes and the local talent Jatyr Berasaluce for the Round 2 spot.
Selman looked in a solid form right from the start of the battle and converted this form into results, earning a 6.83 and 6.73 off his two business-waves to finish with a winning heat-total of 13.56 points.
Felipe accompanied his Chilean surfer into the round of the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 9.13 points, which comprised of a couple of scores in the four-point range.
Guedes and Berasaluce failed to survive the opening round of the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 7.53 and 5.80 points respectively, which placed in bottom-two positions.
The 20th heat pitted Santamaria against Christie, Portugal’s Robertson Goncalves and Hawaii’s Cheyne Willis in a four-man battle for survival.
The Argentinean surfer got off to a pretty ordinary start, struggling to find an opening to put his stylish skills on display. After much hunting and little success, he eventually had to settle for a 3.80 and 5.10 as his best-two wave scores. The resultant heat-total of 8.90 points, however, proved sufficient to earn him the win and thus took him through into the next round.
Christie finished behind him in second place after registering a two-wave total of 8.60 points, which comprised of a 4.50 and 4.10-point ride. The runner-up finish was just enough to squeeze him through into the Round 2 cut.
Goncalves finished in third place with a heat-total of 4.83 points, while Willis had to settle for fourth place after failing to do any better than a heat-total of 2.86 points. The ordinary performance put on by the two surfers led to their removal from the contention for the event title.
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