Matt Wilkinson and Matt Pagan make the Round 3 cut at San Miguel Pro Zarautz
Australia’s Matt Wilkinson and America’s Matt Pagan were able to qualify for the third round (Round of 48) at Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz presented by Euskaltel after claiming top honours in their respective Round
2 (Round of 96) heats that went down at Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Thursday, August 30.
America’s Cory Arrambide made the next round cut as well after finishing behind Wilkinson in second place during the fifth heat. Australia’s Davey Cathels and Brazil’s Bernardo do Miranda, however, were unable to survive the heat after rounding out the bottom-two
position.
The sixth heat saw America’s Evan Geiselman accompany his compatriot Pagan into the next round after securing runner-up place. Basque Country’s Aritz Aranburu and Australia’s Jerome Forrest got eliminated from the competition after finishing in third and
fourth place respectively.
The clean three-to-four foot waves on offer at the primary event site on the latest day of the competition set up a nice stage for a series of enthralling battles between the surfing talent from around the globe.
The fifth heat pitted Wilkinson against Arrambide, Cathels and Miranda in a four-man battle for the Round 3 spot.
As the battle got underway, Wilson got off to a slow start, struggling for a while before eventually posting a 4.93 on the score-board. He soon went on to back it up with an impressive 7.50-point ride, thus reaching a two-wave total of 12.43 points.
Arrambide put on an impressive fight, but missed out on getting the better of his Australian rival by a mere 0.13 points, finishing with a heat-total of 12.30 points. The result, however, was enough to see him through into the next round.
Cathels finished in third place with a heat-total of 11.90 points, while Miranda had to settle for a fourth-place finish after registering a heat-total of 9.83 points.
The sixth heat featured another intense battle, this one taking place between Pagan, Geiselman, Aranburu and Forrest.
Pagan got off to an excellent start, opening his account with a 7.50-point ride and later added an additional 4.47 points to it, thus moving to a decisive heat-total of 11.97 points.
Geiselman managed to score a 5.17 and 6.23 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 11.40 points, which proved sufficient to put him in runner-up place and take him through into the next round.
Aranburu and Forrest were forced to make a premature exit from the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 10.04 and 5.80 points respectively.
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