Round 2 of the ASP 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro deliver thrilling surfing action at La Sauzaie
The second round (Round of 96) of the Association of Surfing Professions (ASP) 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro featured a series of exquisite performances at the primary event site of La Sauzaie in Brétignolles-sur-Mer, France, on Thursday, April 19.
France’s Nicolas Remi, his fellow countryman William Aliotti, Basque Country’s Borja Agote and Spain’s Pablo Gutierrez prevailed in their respective Round 2 heats to advance through into the third round (Round of 64). Great Britain’s Toby Donanchie, French Polynesia’s Toby Donachie, Great Britain’s Luis Eyre and France’s Jules Thomet made their way through into the next round as well after clinching runner-up place in their respective heats.
The surfing conditions at the primary event site turned out to be much better than the one the surfers had to compete in at the secondary site of Les Dunes. The clean four-to-five foot waves offered plenty of opportunities for the surfers to unleash their stylish moves and collect decent scores.
The opening heat of Round 2 saw Remi walked away with top honours after putting on an impressive performance to finish with a heat-total of 12.00 points. Finishing just behind him in second place was Donachie. The British surfer was nothing short of impressive either, navigating his way through the waves to collect a couple of decent scores before eventually finishing with a heat-total of 11.37 points.
French Polynesia’s Alain Riou and Norway’s Luca Guichard were forced to make a premature exit from the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 11.17 and 9.20 points respectively.
The second heat sent Agote into the third round after he claim victory with a two-wave total of 11.13 points. David accompanied him into the next round by securing runner-up position with a heat-total of 10.60 points.
France’s Gregoire Sylvain and his compatriot Arthur Berteloot were sent packing from the event after rounding out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 4.83 and 2.67 points respectively.
The 30-year-old Gutierrez remained one of the standout performers of the day, adjust perfectly to the demanding surfing conditions to post an 8.67 and 7.90 on the score-board for a winning heat-total of 16.57 points, the highest two-wave total of the day.
“I had a good left of about 4-5Ft [1m50] that let me do two big manoeuvres on a clean open face and it was scored a 8.67,” said Gutierrez. “Then I had the whole 10mn paddling act all over again, and I managed to find a right-hander that didn’t look like it was going to offer anything special. I started with a good cutback and it reformed in the inside section so I got to place three off-the-top manoeuvres that scored 7.9. So I guess I was pretty lucky this morning!”
Eyre put up a strong fight, but eventually had to settle for a second-place finish after scoring a heat-total of 15.00 points.
France’s Julien Remi and Venezuela’s Denny Mendoza got eliminated from the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 7.50 and 3.57 points respectively.
The fourth heat of Round 2 saw France’s Aliotti and Thomet secure their spot in the next round after rounding out the top-two positions with a heat-total of 10.84 and 9.83 points respectively.
Venezuela’s Jean s******r and France’s Arrive Augustin had no luck with the waves and eventually had to step out of the contention for the event-title after scoring a heat-total of 5.34 and 3.07 points respectively.
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