Day 5 at the Ballito Pro

After another 7am start with the remaining two heats of the Round of 48 we finally began to feel as if the tide was turning in what has been a pretty testing event. Tough conditions in the form of onshores and spring tides have chipped away at any time credits we had in hand initially and everyone has had to stay focussed and look to the positives of life on tour.

Warm early morning sunrises greet us each day

And so we moved into the No Loser Round of 24 where three-man heats gave some respite to our surfers.  This round is a kind of two part phase which works like this : The winners move straight thru' to to half-fill eight man-on-man heats (round of 16), while 2nd and 3rd placed surfers are reshuffled into man-on-man sudden death heats.The winners of these heats filling the round of 16 match ups.

Moving straight thru with their wins were, Tomas Hermes (BRA), Travis Logie (ZAF), Torrey Meister (HAW), Adriano de Souza (BRA), Jordy Smith (ZAF), Nat Young (USA), Glenn Hall (IRL) and Alejo Muniz (BRA).  Conditions were probably the best we've seen as instead of the early morning offshores swinging round to become onshores we were blessed by a gentle “scout cell” of offshore south westerly wind coming through a good 30 hours ahead of the expected next storm front which is set to spoil Sunday, the final day of the Mr Price Pro. So the continuing 4'-5' swell was cleaned up nicely and heats ran smoothly in the hot sunshine much to the delight of big crowds. We eventually eneded two heats shy of the round of 16 as hoped and so Glenn Hall (IRL) and Alejo Muniz(BRA) are the only surfers without heat matchups yet for this stage of competition.

Lunchtime commentary view

Stopping short allowed for spectators to slip off the beach without missing any surf action and make their way a couple miles up the coast to Salt Rock beach where Mr Price puts on a massive  two day music extravaganza, FREE! South Africa's top bands and DJ's perform on a huge stage, on the beach from 4pm until midnight on both nights and last year we had daily crowds of 20 000 people hanging out in groovy beach party mood. There is a very small police presence in this affluent coastal town and no incidents have ever sullied the vibe making it a major drawcard for those not especially into the biggest surfing event in South Africa.

Nine hours lie ahead to complete the event and so one more early start is needed in an effort to lave just semis and final for Sunday. With two man heats for the remainder of competition it is visually easier understanding for those people not familiar with competitive surfing and we have exciting match-ups to come:

Tomas Hermes vs Nathaniel Curran

Travis Logie vs Nathan Hedge

Torrey Meister vs Brian Toth

Adriano de Souza vs Pat Gadauskas

Jordy Smith vs Nate Yeomans

Nat Young vs Alex Ribeiro

Glenn Hall vs     ???

Alejo Muniz vs  ???