Toth, Miranda and Meister clinch victory in Round 1 heats at Mr Price Pro Ballito
Puerto Rico’s Brian Toth, Brazil’s Bernardo Miranda and Hawaii’s Torrey Meister emerged triumphant in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito that went down at the Willards
Beach in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Tuesday, July 3.
All three surfers consequently advanced through into the next round (Round of 48) of the competition, accompanied by Australia’s Garrett Parkes, Guadeloupe’s Charles Martin and Brazil’s Jadson Andre who finished in the seventh, eighth and ninth heat respectively.
The opening day of the latest ASP Prime event saw clean yet inconsistent one-metre waves breaking at the primary event site, presenting an ideal opportunity for the competition field comprising of both local and international talent to put on exquisite performances.
The seventh heat saw Toth take on Parkes, Germany’s Marlon Lipke and Brazil’s Hizunome Bettero in a four-man bout. The Puerto Rican surfer put on a superb performance and collected the best-two waves of the heat to finish with a decisive heat-total of 14.57
points.
Parkes finished with a two-wave total of 13.34 points, which served to earn him runner-up place and thus carry him through into the next round.
Lipke and Bettero finish with a respective heat-total of 11.74 and 8.00 points, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The eighth heat featured the day’s standout performance landed by the former World Championship Tour campaigner Miranda. He completely dominated the battle, posting an 8.17 on the score-board off his first business-wave and backing it up with an 8.93-point
ride to eventually finish with a heat-total of 17.10 points.
“The conditions were ok, it was windy but there were still a few fun rides and if you got a good one you could do three of four turns,” Miranda said. “I had some very experienced surfers in my heat, so I just tried to pick the best waves.”
Martin accompanied Miranda into the next round after finishing with a heat-total of 14.40 points to secure second-place finish.
South Africa’s Brandon Gibbens and America’s Brett Simpson got ejected from the contention for the event title after finishing with a heat-total of 11.07 and 7.40 points respectively.
The ninth heat saw the pipe-line specialist Meister put on an impressive performance to get the better of Andre, Australia’s Mitch Crew and Basque Country’s Aritz Aranburu.
Meister landed one of the biggest air-reverses during the course of the battle to post an excellent 8.00 on the score-board and backed it up with a 6.50-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 14.50 points.
Andre finished with a heat-total of 13.66 points, securing second-place finish, thus advancing through into the next round of the competition.
Crew finished in third place with a heat-total of 12.00 points, while Aranburu rounded out the bottom-position with a two-wave total of 11.17 points.
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