Ramzi Boukhiam and Beyrick De Vries enter CHIKO Pro Junior Semi-finals at Newcastle’s Surfest
Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam and South Africa’s Beyrick De Vries moved into the Semi-finals of CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued at Merewether Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Sunday, March 11.
Boukhiam defeated Australia’s in-form surfer Matt Banting in the first Quarter-final, while De Vries got the better of New Zealand’s Johnny Hicks in the second Quarter-final to advance through into the next round of the 4-Star Association of Surfing Professionals
(ASP) Men’s Qualifying event.
The fourth day of the competition, which was also expected to be the final one as well, saw clean three foot waves breaking at the event site, setting an ideal stage for an ideal conclusion to what had turned out to be a really exciting junior event.
The first Quarter-final featured a real nail-biting battle between Boukhiam and Banting. Both the surfers had been in formidable form during the previous rounds of the event and continued to exhibit intimidating form during their encounter.
Boukhiam got off to a good start, locking his first business-wave earning in the heat to post a 7.75 on the score-board. He continued to search for another good score, but only managed to add an additional 5.75 points to his account, moving to a heat-total
of 13.50 points.
Banting, on the other hand, got off to a slow start but gradually built momentum to eventually collect a couple of good waves in the final minutes of the heat, with the first one earning him a 7.50 while the second one scoring a 5.90. The resultant heat-total
of 13.40 put him in a mere 0.10-point deficit, consequently forcing him to concede victory to his rival.
De Vries completely stole the show during the second Quarter-final with his superb performance. The South African went through a series of average-wave scores before catching a wave to unload a string of exquisite manoeuvres, earning an 8.00 for the effort.
Backing it up with a spectacular 9.00-point wave, De Vries finished with a heat-total of 17.00 points, which held up until the end.
Hicks failed to meet the standard that had been set up by his rival and after struggling throughout the heat to catch waves and a big score, he finished with a heat-total of 8.90 points, which comprised of a 4.75 and 4.15-point wave. The lacklustre performance
led him to surrender victory and thus the Semi-final slot to his rival.
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