RIP CURL PRO PENICHE WQS 1 star April 16, 2005 Rip Curl Pro gives a winner in angry ocean .
Quarterfinals After showing he was recovering well from his knee injury during the two last days, last year's european champion Justin Mujica (PRT) just rocked the walls on offer at the outside. Adding speed and power to his perfect style, his comitment on the most critical sections of the lefthanders gave him the highest scores of the contest, with a 9.5 pointer to get a 18.33 points total out of possible 20. Just a thirll ! The other inform surfer of these quarters was Grégory Pastuziak (FRA) ; experienced and powerful surfing allowed him to try some vertical re-entries finishing his waves by great “fins out” snaps, just to make sure the judges had noticed he could still face the young guns after more than a decade of competition. After former WCT surfer Eric Rebière (FRA) got his ticket for the semifinals, followed by a surprising Fabrice Gelez (FRA) who realized here one of his best results so far ; with his relaxed attitude, the surfer from the Landes, France, took one heat after another, surfing with no pressure but still efficiency, that judges appreciated, for sure. Rip Curl's young gun Steven Pierson (PYF) was stopped after showing he was about to make some changes in the hierarchy. Semifinals In the first semifinal, Justin Mujica (PRT) once again found all the waves he needed to express his style and left his opponents far away with flying floaters over the breaking lips of the long lefthanders connecting up to the inside. As the time ran throughout the day, the last representant of the brazilian contingent surfed with great determination and managed to get to the final of this 1* WQS, in the middle of the best europeans. Semifinal #2 brang some upset as Eric Rebière (FRA) finished fourth behind his fellow countryman Fabrice Gelez (FRA) who is still delighted to have made it up so far. As the conditions were offering less sets in front of the judges' tower, it was decided to send the final after a 15 minute break, allowing the final four to concentrate, change wetsuits and get ready for the battle. Final Justin Mujica (PRT) in red, Carlos Lima (BRA) in white, Pablo Solar (ESP) in yellow and Tanio Barreto (ESP) in blue, were the last four men of the contest. With the wind still blowing whereas the swell was dropping offering less and less sets, the 30 minute decider was going to be difficult. The winner had to get the right position out there, and choose two of the best waves to express his talent. That's what Tanio Barreto (BRA) did just after the hooter had spoken, getting a 9.5 pointer thanks to 7 manoeuvers executed on the critical sections, finishing with flying floater as the crowd was cheering from the cliff. Justin Mujica (PRT) answered with a 7.33 pts wave, but then had trouble to catch another good one to add to his total, whereas the leader was scoring another 5+ wave to secure his lead with 6 minutes remaining. With lower score but a better average total, the spanish Solar in yellow found enough opportunities to grab second place and finish as runner –up here in Peniche. It's been a great event here and we hope you manged to get all the live coverage brought to you by ASP Europe. Thanks to all the sponsors, Rip Curl especially and thanks for reading. The tour is moving to St Gilles, in France. Enjoy, catch up later !!
Grégoire Puget / aspeurope.com |
After checking world famous beachbreak of Supertubos this mornig at 8.30 am, the officials decided not to take the risk of moving the whole event and send the quarters at the reefbreak of Baleal. With the clouds over our heads for the third day in a row, the wind still blowing hard, everything was sent for a 9.30 am start.