Tricky conditions see last Saffas out of The Ballito Pro

Conditions went from big and clean to choppy, challenging 1.3 – 1.5 metre (4-5ft) waves forcing competitors to change their strategies at The Ballito Pro on Saturday.

It was a big day for South Africa’s Beyrick de Vries who, despite being eliminated in ninth place, moved up to become the highest placed South African in the QS rankings and was awarded the coveted wildcard entry into the Corona Open J-Bay Championship Tour (CT) event from July 9-22 in Jeffreys Bay.

“I’ve been doing this for a while now so I’m used to surfing under pressure. I think being at home helps so much, you can feel the energy and it almost felt like it was going to happen before it did,” said De Vries.

“I’ve got nothing to lose, I’m going to be surfing against (Gabriel) Medina or Kolohe (Andino) and there’s no holding back.

“I’m not going to surf for a 12.00 total, I’ll need 18 points to beat those guys and that can be liberating.”

Fellow South African, Jordy Smith was happy that De Vries would be joining him in the Supertubes line-up.

“I’m stoked for Beyrick, I know it’s been a big dream for him to compete at Jeffreys, so now that he’s in he has to focus on what he wants,” said Smith.

Unfortunately, Smith was eliminated in his round nine encounter with Deivid Silva (BRA).

It was a tough heat, with Smith looking for the aerial opportunities, while Silva stuck to throwing down power turns.

“Jordy surfs amazing but the waves are so hard. I’m just really glad to make another heat,” said Silva.

While it’s the end of the road in Ballito for Smith, his focus now shifts to the Corona Open J-Bay.

“Just being at home competing in front of friends and family, it’s very soothing and calming and it’s good to be in that mindset ahead of J-Bay. To be honest, it’s the best I’ve felt in my whole career, it’s a combination of a lot of stuff. You just need to keep adding to it, waking up every morning and keep on bettering yourself,” said Smith.

In the first heat of the day, Ezekiel Lau (HAW) and Carlos Munoz (CRI) found a few gems in the slow and inconsistent conditions, leaving former World Champ Adriano de Souza wanting and the Brazilian was eliminated from the event.

“It’s always hard to realise you’re that close to making a heat. Ezekiel (Lau) was just a little bit ahead so it was really difficult,” said De Souza.

It all came down to strategy in the onshore conditions.

Brazilian Ian Gouveia was fully committed to a game-plan of power surfing and smashed his way to an excellent heat total of 16.40 to advance into the Quarterfinals ahead of Barron Mamiya (HAW) who launched into technical aerial attempts but couldn’t complete the high risk manoeuvres.

“I knew I was going to have to get the best waves against Barron (Mamiya), he’s capable of turning the heat around so I just stuck to my game plan,” said Gouveia.

The winner will be crowned the 51^st champion of the world’s longest running professional surfing event on Sunday and will walk away with a huge 10,000 points towards qualification for the 2020 Championship Tour.