Romain Cloitre and Eric Geiselman sail to Round 5 of ASP 4-Star Vans Pier Classic – Surfing News
France’s Romain Cloitre and America’s Eric Geiselman advanced through into Round 5 (Round of 32) of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Vans Pier Classic after walking away with top honours from their respective Round 4 (Round of 64) heats
that took place at the renowned Hunting Beach Pier in California, America, on Friday, March 30.
America’s Matt Pagan and Hawaii’s Joel Centeio successfully extended their life in the event as well after securing runner-up place in the 11th and 12th heat respectively.
The surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site on Friday was nothing short of challenging. The lack of scoring opportunities during the course of the four-man battles kept both the international and local surfers on the back foot, creating an
intense atmosphere and keeping the crowd guessing as to who would eventually take the win.
The 11th heat pitted Cloitre against Pagan, Chile’s Guillermo Satt and Argentina’s Marcelo Rodriguez in a battle for the Round 5 slot.
The Frenchman got down to business as soon as the heat started and locked his first wave to collect an impressive 7.00 off it. Keeping the momentum going, he soon backed it up with a 6.40 off his second business-wave to move to a decisive heat-total of 13.40
points.
Pagan started behind Cloitre throughout the heat and eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 11.17 points, which included a 5.67 and 5.50-point wave, to clinch runner-up place.
Satt and Rodriguez were forced to make a premature exit from the event after rounding out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 8.56 and 7.86 points respectively.
The 12th heat saw Geiselman take on Centeio, South Africa’s Brendon Gibbens and Brazil’s Caue Wood in a battle for survival.
The American surfer put his local knowledge of the waves to use and managed to find a 5.17 and 6.00-point ride halfway through the heat to get to a heat-total of 11.17 points.
Centeio came really close to Geiselman’s heat-total after finding a 4.50 and 6.50-point wave, but was unable to go all the way and thus had to settle for runner-up place.
Gibbens finished in third place with a heat-total of 10.67 points, whereas Wood put on a pretty lacklustre performance for a heat-total of 7.25 points and thus finishing in fourth place. Both the surfers were consequently removed from the contention for
the event title.
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