Confital Pro
Tuesday December 1st through to Saturday December 5th
El Confital, Los Palmas. Gran Canaria
The third day at Confital lived up to all the pre hype with some first-rate waves creating the perfect canvas for the world best bodyboarders to draw lines on.
The day started with R6 with Spanish riders Jonathan Vega and Alex Uranga top scored with high 7's on their top two waves.
During the early heats the tide was low and the big scores were few and far between.
R7 was equally entertaining with Mitch Rawlins and Adam Morley both combining deep tube rides with flashy air moves to dominate the round.
Into R8 and the waves by this stage were nothing short of amazing.
Clean 3-4 footers with deep tubes through the middle section. The current ratings leader is always seeded in red in heat 1and straight off the bat Jeff Hubbard was in trouble. With 5 minutes to go he was in 3rd place but like the true champion he is he pulled a 9.5 out of the bag to eventually win the heat.
"Man, that was heavy" said Jeff. "I have been training for three months and the pressure was pretty gnarly. I just tried to relax because I knew that there were some insane waves coming through. I am glad that is over and done with and now I can just concentrate on the man on man."
In heat 2 R8 Oliver Herrera (Canary Isl) dominated the good set waves with perfect positioning leaving former and current world champions Ben Player (Aust) and Uri Valadao (Brazil) to fight for second.
In the end Player got the nod and progressed with Herrera.
Heat three saw another of the "Fantastic 5" move through to R9 as Guilherme Tamega (Brazil) enjoyed himself in the perfect conditions.
" I can just relax. It's the other guys this time that have the pressure so I just did my thing" sad GT.
Local rider Deigo Cabrera finished 2nd with some classy moves in the pocket.
Heat 4 and the surf by this stage is mind-blowing as Brazilian Paulo Barcellos finished first ahead of Ryan Hardy and Mitch Rawlins (Australia)
Barcellos opened up with the highest wave of the heat in the first few seconds and led from the get go.
"I am glad that's over", said Hardy
Into heat 5 and the rise of Guilllermo Cobo (Canary Isl) continued as he defeated and inform Dave Winchester in perfect conditions.
"How's the level of riding today" said Winny. "This one round here today has pushed the sport to a new level I reckon"
Heat 6 was dominated by the two top seeds Amaury Laverne (Re-Union Isl) and Magno Oliveria (Brazil).
South Africa's Adam Morley was looking in great form but suffered the only interference call of the round and was eliminated with Brazilian Stephan Stamm.
By this time the crowd had peaked to see 9 times world champion Mike Stewart (Hawaii) try to create history.
At 47 Mike is challenging for a record 10th World Title but today he had his work cut out for him.
Former World Champion Damian King (Australia) and Brazilian wonder-boy Lucas Nogueira looked to be dominating the heat until Hugo Pinheiro (Portugal) scored an excellent wave to leave the other three fighting for 2nd.
With just minutes remaining Stewart moved to 3rd and needed a 5.25 to progress.
But in true champion fashion he picked up an inside wave and got the score required.
"That was crazy out there" said Mike. "I was lucky" said the legend.
The final heat of the day saw Mark McCarthy (Sth Africa) move through with a solid combination of high-octane moves and second place went to local Jonay Alamo.
Pierre Luis Costes missed out by less than a point and was eliminated.
In the end the 5 contenders were still standing.
The Man on Man 9th round looks like this.
H1 - Jeff Hubbard V Ben Player
H2 - Oliver Herrera v Yeray Martinez
H3 - Guilherme Tamega V Ryan Hardy
H4 - Paulo Barcellos V Deigo Cabrera
H5 - Guillermo Cobo V Magno Oliveira
H6 - Amaury Laverne V Dave Winchester
H7 - Hugo Pinheiro V Jonay Alamo
H8 - Mike Stewart V Mark McCarthy
The girls will also feature heavily in day 4 of the IBA Grand Slam event at Confital.
R1 and the quarters will be contested and their title race is just as exciting.
Multi World Champion Neymara Carvalho (Brazil) is trying to secure a record 5th world title but has to hold off two very talented young ladies looking for their first.
Spanish rider Eunate Aguirre and Brazilian Jessica Becker are hungry for a World title and the race for the WWT crown will be nothing short of amazing.
Riders will meet at 9am for a potential 10am start for day 4 of the Confital Pro.
Statistics - 770 waves have been ridden so far with only 3 of those falling into the excellent range (8.01 - 10.00 points)
Follow the event live at www.confitalibatour.com/index.php/site/live
Press Releases daily www.ibaworldtour.com
Event Brief - The Worlds best riders all consider the event at Confital as one of the main highlights on the IBA World Tour. In years past, the tour would conclude at Pipeline, but in 2007 the tour was restructured to begin in Hawaii and end in Gran Canaria. The company behind the event, Maldito Rodriguez, is a professional marketing business that normally deals with rock concerts with acts like U2 and Sting. They decided to throw their weight behind the sport and finish the IBA World tour with a weeklong festival at El Confital, a fast breaking right hand reef that perfectly suits high performance bodyboarding.
Previous event Champions include - Uri Valadao, Neymara Carvalho, Lilly Pollard and Tenerife rider Alvaro Padron!
