Perth Standlick and Ramzi Boukhiam to compete for San Miguel Pro Zarautz Title
Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam and Australia’s Perth Standlick successfully advanced through into the semi-finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz after winning their respective quarter-final heats that went down at the main event site of Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Saturday, September 1.
Boukhiam barely managed to get the better of America’s Cory Arrambide in the first semi-final to move through into the final stage of the competition, brining the event to a premature event for his rival in the end.
The second semi-final saw Brazil’s Tomas Hermes bow out to Standlick, thus getting eliminated from the competition while sending his rival into the next round.
The conditions got even tougher as the competition reached the semi-final stage. The demanding one-to-two foot waves breaking at the event site pushed the surfers on the back-foot, causing them to put in an even greater effort to reap some good score.
The first semi-final saw Boukhiam take on Arrambide in a battle to earn a shot at the title. Both the surfers seemed equally determined, something that was clearly obviously by the way they kept attacking the waves.
The 23-year-old Arrambide squeezed a 4.50 off his first business-wave halfway through the heat and immediately followed it up with an impressive 6.17-point ride, thus reaching a heat-total of 10.67 points.
Boukhiam, however, managed to finish the heat with a higher score than his rival, courtesy of a 5.33 and 6.00 off his top-two rides.
The second semi-final saw Standlick and Hermes take each other on in the battle for the spot in the final. The 25-year-old Brazilian surfer got off to a decent start and eventually got hold of a 7.50-point ride halfway through the heat. He soon added an additional 6.07 points to his account, thus moving to a heat-total of 13.57 points.
His efforts proved inadequate as Hermes scored a 6.93 and an excellent 9.17 off his best-two waves to finish the heat with a two-wave total of 16.10 points.
“History’s repeating itself cause last year I lost in the semi-final and this year again,” Hermes stated later on. “I would love to get to the final now! That’s competition though, congratulation’s Perth he’s a great surfer and great guy and deserved it today. Now let’s go to Portugal and think about the next event!”
The final of ASP 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz was to take place between Boukhiam and Standlick, both of whom appeared to be in top form.
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