Australian 5th seed Taj Burrow took a selective approach today, catching only three rides in the 35-minute heat, but it paid off for him, finishing with a heat score of 15.33, ahead of fellow West Australian Jake Paterson (13.40 points) and Puerto Rican wildcard Brian Toth (12.20).
Only two of the top 16 seeds were beaten today. Brazilian 26th seed Marcelo Nunes, whose boards are still lost in transit somewhere between his home country and Reunion Island, borrowed a board and managed to relegate 10th seeded Australian Luke Egan to Round Two. Nunes scored 15.5 on his best two rides, with Reunion Island wildcard Frederic Robin second on 13.00 and Egan third on 12.76.
Nunes said after his win: "I love being here in Reunion Island. St Leu is a great wave. I am happy to win my heat. I borrowed Victor Ribas' board right before the heat and it was great. I am really happy."
Australian 4th seed Trent Munro, who won the 2005 Rip Curl Pro at Phillip Island in late March, was upset by fellow Australian Troy Brooks today.
Brooks posted the single best wave score of the day (9 out of 10) with a series of spectacular manoeuvres, relegating Munro and Australian sponsor wildcard to Round Two.
The Rip Curl Search WCT event holds a first-of-its-kind ‘ASP Floating License’, allowing Rip Curl to run the event in a different location every year, if it sees fit. A company built on the Search philosophy, Rip Curl has developed this event so it can travel the planet, delivering the world’s best waves to the world’s best surfers.
Reunion Island, a French territory situated in the Indian Ocean off the south-east coast of South Africa, has been selected for Year 1. For a surfer there is no better Search destination. Often called ‘the intense island’, Reunion is a small volcanic island with an excitingly active coastline. Through the swell months of May to October, Reunion’s surf breaks hold long swells that deliver fortunate surfers with some of the highest quality waves in the world.
Rip Curl has a special relationship with Saint Leu, hosting the last WCT event there in 1996. That contest was won by Kelly Slater (Florida, USA), who this year goes into the event as favourite, courtesy of two dominating Fostert’s Men’s World Tour wins in Tahiti and Fiji. The current Foster’s Men’s Tour ratings leader is vying for his seventh World Title and hoping to break the three-year stranglehold Andy Irons (Kauai, Hawaii) has had on the trophy.
Organisers are extremely confident that they will complete Round One tomorrow, with forecasters predicting the swell and wind conditions will remain similar to today throughout the weekend.
Hawaii's reigning three-time world champion Andy Irons will hit the water first thing Saturday, up against 18th seeded Australian Richie Lovett and another Reunion Island wildcard David Grainville.
Injury, illness and impending fatherhood has forced a record 10 withdrawals by Top 45 surfers from the US$270,000 Rip Curl Search WCT event. The Top 45 surfers who have withdrawn are: - Florida twins CJ & Damien Hobgood (current world # 3 & # 7 respectively, CJ impending father, Damien injured - Australian Dean Morrison (current world #8, injured); - Californian Chris Ward (current world #14, injured); - Brazilian Neco Padaratz (current world # 22, injured); - Hawaiian Sunny Garcia (current world # 33, ill); - Californian Tim Curran (current world # 35, ill); - Californian Shane Beschen (current world # 37, impending father); - Florida's Shea Lopez (current world # 38, injured); - Australian Toby Martin (current world # 42, injured). [p]With all Foster's ASP WCT events having a 48-man starting field, the late withdrawals have allowed event organisers to award 11 wildcards, instead of the normal three. The 11 wildcards are: - America's three-time world champion Tom Curren, 40-year-old from Santa Barbara (sponsor wildcard); - Australia's leading junior Ben Dunn, 19-year-old from Old Bar, NSW (sponsor wildcard); - Australia's reigning world Under 16 champion Matt Wilkinson, a 16-year-old from Copacabana, NSW (sponsor wildcard); - Brazilian Bruno Santos, 22-year-old (sponsor wildcard); - Brazilian Jean da Silva, 20-year-old (sponsor wildcard) - Puerto Rican Brian Toth, 20-year-old (sponsor wildcard); - Reunion Island's Frederic Robin, 29-year-old (local wildcard); - Spain's Pablo Gutierrez, 23-year-old from Santander (trials wildcard); - Reunion Island's David Grainville, 22-year-old (trials wildcard); - Australia's Travis Lynch, 21-year-old from Newcastle, NSW (trials wildcard); - Morocco's Abdel El Harim, 20-year-old from Rabat (trials wildcard). _z_surfing_z_);
