Day 4 @ Ballito Pro - Quiver glasser Nick Williams gives his daily commentary on the comp

Day 4

After the blast from the evening before when the south-westerly came through, we woke super early to have brekko and head across to get the remainder of the round of 96 completed and smash on through the next round of 48 as we have a lot of time to make up.

Adriano de Souza & Brazilian support crew

7am and the first heat of the day was underway and we ploughed through each heat turnover as quickly as possible , nailing 19 halfhour heats in choppy fulltide conditions only made contestable due to the increase in swell from yeaterday's weatherfront. All of the morning heats had seen clean 4'-5' faces although not many rideable tubes but an abundance of excellent scores were award throuhgout the day. There are a few faces that are now looking like possibilities as finalist, although of course it is always a guessing game in trying to predict what kinda curve-ball Mother Nature will throw, but aside form the obvious, there are new faces that are definitely in with a shot.

Mobbed:  Jordy Smith

Number 1 seed Adriano de Souza seems to be a half man-half board mutation that sees him surfing flawlessly no matter what kind of wave he has under him. Jordy Smith stole the show in the afternoon, first by beginning his heat 300m across the rocks at Willard Beach to the right of the contest area in front of the tower and then casually paddling through the turbulent divider of rocks, despite the heavy swell. His timing couldn't have been better as he casually stroked into a perfect set and rode to the beach pulling an air 360 just off the sand to earn an 8.30. By the end of the heat he had a couple of upper 7's and even a 9.14, in a show of greatest ease. There is another Brazilian though who has awoken a lot of interest with his crazy surfing, who goes by the name of Peterson Crisanto. A betting man would stake a lot on this youngster who I feel is a certainty to make the World Tour in the near future. Beyrick de Vries and Travis Logie are the only Saffas moving through with Jordy but other notable performances came from the likes of Torrey Meister (Haw), Nat Young (USA), Jack Freestone (Aus), Tiago Pires (Prt), Tomas Hermes (Bra) and Brian Toth(Pri), to name just a few.

At the Oakley  “One Wave Wonder” affair Grant “Twiggy” Baker walked away with the win for the second consecutive year for his fearless surfing at Cloudbreak on Fiji during the recent World Tour event. He is a fantastic ambassador, not only for all things South African, but also for the Big Wave movement and some of us made it out by the skin of our teeth as the tequila began to flow freely.

It's an exhausted crew of Officials who dragged down to supper tonight and then wilted off to bed thereafter, as it's another early start in the morning. Alejo Muniz (Bra) will surf in the second heat and along with Peterson Crisanto are my two dark horses in with a shot for the title this year – on presentform, that is.

For the remainder of the Mr Price Pro I see early fulltide starts with offshore changing to lowtide onshores – kinda opposites for what would be preferred, really. So there is nothing certain on the cards . The www.mrpricepro.co.za site will give you the live link to tune in wherever you are and give you the chance to try predict  a winner.