Nat Young, Glenn Hall and Jack Freestone qualify for quarter-finals at Mr Price Pro Ballito
America’s Nat Young, Ireland’s Glenn Hall and Australia’s Jack Freestone made it through into the quarter-finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito after walking away with top honours from their respective Round
5 (Round of 16) heats that went down at Willard Beach in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Saturday, July 7.
The latest day of the competition saw average waves breaking at the primary event site, making the surfers, both local and international, work really hard to get their hands on a couple of relatively decent scores. The battles were expected to be intense
as the competition approached the quarter-finals.
The sixth heat pitted Young against Brazil’s Alex Ribeiro in a man-on-man battle for the quarter-final spot. The young Californian sensation did not get off to the best of starts and struggled to get his hands on a good score. Ribeiro did not look too impressive
during the course of the battle either, but eventually managed to get to a heat-total of 9.00 points.
Young eventually managed to post a 5.27 on the score-board off his first business-wave and used his priority on a wave to pull off a massive 8.93-point ride on the score-board, thus finishing with a heat-total of 14.20 points, consequently walking away with
the win.
“It was a big heat for me, it’s the best result I’ve had in a Prime all year so stoked,” Young said. “I’m just trying to keep going, I’ve made it to the last day and my aim was to get as far as I could so now I’m out to win it.”
The seventh heat saw Hall and New Zealand’s Jay Quinn squaring-off to earn a place in the next stage of the competition. Both the surfers did not look too comfortable in the conditions on hand, but the Irish surfer eventually managed to clinch victory after
finishing with a heat-total of 11.34 points against his rival’s 7.40.
The eighth heat saw the former ASP World Junior Champion Freestone put on an impressive performance to edge out current ASP World 20 Alejo Muniz from Brazil. The Australian surfer finished with a heat-total of 13.77 points, while his rival had to settle
for a two-wave total of 11.67 points.
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