La Caja de Canarias 8th O´neill Trophy

Wednesday, October 12 th – Twenty heats done to start the second 2* WQS of the month

The second contest of the Canarian leg got underway this morning on the beautiful island of Tenerife , after the WQS caravan had moved from an island to another yesterday. As the south site of Las Americas was not consistent enough, the contest director sent everyone for a one-hour drive towards the north, to the black-sand beach of “El Socorro”, near the city of Puerto de la Cruz . The soft reef break was offering some 3-4 ft waves with a good potential for all competitors, under a sunny sky, and once again all the surfers were ready to fight again for some points and dollars.

At 11 am, heat #1 and 2 being delayed due to transport problems of a few surfers, Felix Ortega (Cny) was the first local to advance onto the next round, getting through despite the close-out conditions, in front of David Luis (Prt). “I've had a good result in Las Palmas so I am really motivated again, and it starts good for me,” confessed the experienced local.

The day went on in difficult conditions as the waves were closing fast obliging the riders to score some huge powerful turns on short sections. With some changes in the schedule in order to help all the surfers to get to the north site of competition, the round of 96 was completed, led by highscorer of the day Brendon Ragenovich (Usa) who got a 15.17 pts total to advance to round of 64. After his good result in Gran Canaria, Yerin Brown (Aus) confirmed his good form and hit the water to qualify in style after catching the bigger set waves.

As the swell forecast doesn't appear really good for next days, officials decided to start the round of seeded surfers, in order to finish it tomorrow, before the swell drops totally as predicted. Adapting to the conditions, the favourites still managed to qualify as did recent 2* QS winner Michel Bourez (Pyf) with his definitely destroying surfing.

It was a good day at the beach, in the mobile Oneill bus which will be the official site for this contest. With some crowd on the beach, some waves and a good level for the start of this 2* WQS, the second contest of the month in Europe is now well gone. We will have an 11 am check in tomorrow to finish the round of 64, as the weekend might offer some fantastic conditions allowing us to stay in Las Americas, main site of this 8 th Oneill Trophy. Thanks for reading, see you later.

The 8 th O'neill Trophy is a 2 Star “World Qualifying Series” Event sanctioned by Asp Europe . It is sponsored by O'neill and will offer $25 000 of prizemoney. It is proudly supported by the Caja de Canarias, the City Council of Los Realejos, the City Council of Arena, the Hotel Sol Tenerife, the Canarian Surfing Federation, Surf Radical, the monthly El Maquinola and Litografia Trujillo.