Saturday, September 10 th – Riders on the storm

Luis Rodrigues (Esp) and Fabrice Gelez (Fra) opened the show this morning under heavy rains and with onshore wind blowing strong. As the sets were breaking more and more at the outside the first warriors of the day understood quickly it was going to be a tough day. First upset came in no time when yesterday's high scorer Russel Winter (Gbr) was eliminated after he decided to leave the water with ten minutes remaining.

“After my first wave I spent five minutes underwater waiting for the 3 meter set to pass, so feeling tired I just decided to leave that one. It's really tough outhere, some sets are just too big to paddle in and it's getting bigger. I'll wait for next week's WQS event to try and get a better result.”

Hira Teriinatoofa (Pyf) was the other great rider of the morning. Comparing the powerful conditions to his home spots of Tahiti, the former ISA World Champion proved he had all the skills to get the best out of such conditions. He managed to get a 7+ wave to secure his qualification for the round of 32, just before the contest was put on hold until 3 pm.

This “Big Saturday” started again at 3.15 pm in still hostile conditions but former European Junior champion Aritz Aranburu (Esp) surprised everyone when he found a big opening wave to rip and score a 9 pts result: “It's tough out there but looks like it's starting to get cleaner. I knew one good wave could make the difference so I'm happy to continue tomorrow”.

The weather got a little lighter throughout the day and the massive sets coming in allowed the last thirty-two soldiers of this battle to make the show. Eneko Acero (Esp) even found his way through a short but still 6 ft barrel at the inside by the time the crowd was arriving on the cliffs that surround the bay of Pantin. Qualifying in the last seconds of his heat, Patrick Beven (Fra) left the water releaved: “I was surfing a 6'5'' board today when I usually surf 5'11'' ones; today is really powerful and tricky but there are some waves to be scored. I am looking forward for tomorrow as the swell might be cleaner”.

The 30 minute deciders went on throughout the afternoon, showing some great commitment from all the riders of the contest. Wearing the red singlet, Kai Otton (Aus) found the rhythm out the outside, and the righthander which was breaking allowed him to take off on a huge 8 ft set wave. After taking speed he just flew off the lip to land almost three meters below, finishing his ride with a radical snap back on the closing section, destroying the furious wall with style. The result was a 9. 23 pointer, third best score of the contest so far, out of possible ten.

It was a big day here in Pantin but everything went on the right way. Some great level of surfing, some big manoeuvers and commitment gathered a passionate crowd on the surroundings of the little bay but we are expecting more peaceful conditions for tomorrow. We will have a long working day tomorrow as fifteen heats of girls will be held, as well as the last seven heats of this Men's 2005 Pantin Classic. Thank you for joining us all day and keep in mind we will crown our champions by the end of the day tomorrow.

The 2005 ferrolterra Pantin Classic is organised by Oceano Surf Club and Asp Europe, sponsored by Caixanova, the Region of Galicia, Cool Shoe Corporation, Redsand, RadioVoz, the Council of Ferrol, The Galician Departments of Sports and Tourism, the Cities of Valdovino, Cedeira and Naron.