Tomas Hermes, Travis Logie and Torrey Meister advance to Round 5 at Mr Price Pro Ballito
Brazil’s Tomas Hermes, South Africa’s Travis Logie and Hawaii’s Torrey Meister directly qualified for the fifth round (Round of 16) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito after claiming top honours in their respective
Round 3 (No-Loser Round of 24) heats that went down at Willard Beach in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Friday, July 6.
With powerful one-metre waves on offer at the primary event site, the stage was all set for a series of exquisite performances and enthralling battles. Even though there was no pressure of elimination hanging over them, the surfers were determined to advance
to the fifth round without having to surf in Round 4 (Round of 24).
The opening heat of Round 1 pitted Hermes against America’s Nathaniel Curran and South Africa’s Beyrick De Vries in a three-man bout. The Brazilian surfer wasted no time to show that he meant business. Getting down to business early, he posted a 7.83 on
the score-board and backed it up with an 8.00-point ride to finish with a decisive heat-total of 15.83 points.
“I’m so happy to win my heat, this is my best result this year,” Hermes said. “I’m just feeling good, I love this wave and I’m feeling comfortable competing here and I hope to advance into the next round.”
Curran and De Vries finished with a heat-total of 11.16 and 8.93 points respectively, consequently getting relegated to the fourth round to surf again for survival.
The second heat saw Logie use his local knowledge of the waves effectively to collect a 6.00-point wave early in the heat and soon added an additional 7.93 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 14.60 points.
His two rivals in the heat, Australia’s Nathan Hedge and Portugal’s Tiago Pires, finished with a heat-total of 10.57 and 7.70 points respectively, thus moving into the next round to have another shot at earning a place in Round 5.
The third heat featured an all-Hawaiian affair, with Meister taking on Granger Larsen and Olamana Eleogram in a three-man battle.
Meister barely got his hands on victory after finishing with a heat-total of 10.67 points, just 0.27 points ahead of Larsen, to advance directly into the fifth round.
Eleogram put on a rather lacklustre performance to finish with a heat-total of 6.77 points, consequently accompanying Larsen into the relegation Round 4.
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