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Outstanding surf lines returned to Thurso East for the Round 2 of the O'Neill Coldwater Classic Scotland, where Joan Duru and Alain Riou delivered full swing performances in the 6ft (1.5m) waves of the Scottish reef.
Duru was on fire and confirmed the deepest barrel of the day to score 9.10 out of 10 possible points in a ride. "The waves are pumping now," stated Duru. "The bomb came to me and it was perfect and I was lucky so it is sick. I have never caught a wave like that here and before my first heat was a little cross-shore, perfect for doing big turns and now it is only barrels."
"I like surfing on my backhand," continued Duru. "The wave is strong and my board is good so I want to go as far as I can in these waves at this contest."
Alain Riou, 27, who was first up after the contest had been placed on hold due to the low tide, sprung out of the starting gate linking a series of critical backhand smashes on two consecutive rides in the first 10 minutes of his heat, to claim a 17.34 out of 20 heat total and advance comfortably through to the following round of competition.
"The tide was a bit too low before and the guys were surfing on the kelp but now the tide is coming in and it is definitely better with the wind dropping off. There are some really nice waves out there now."
"I was the only one on his backhand in that heat so sometimes it is an advantage," continued Riou. "The judges see that your turns are good and then let the other three guys hassle to see if their forehand turns are any good."
Riou, one of Europe’s most experienced surfers on the Asp Star Tour, is currently ranked nº 127 after a slow start to his 2011 campaign and hopes to move up the rankings ladder to increase his chances of competing in the all important Asp Prime events coming up.
Christophe Allary, 26, survived two nail biting heats to eventually advance into Round Three and gained confidence with his performances today in the quality conditions. An interference call did little to stop the young Frenchman from keeping his head and securing second place in the dying moments of his 30-minute clash.
"I’m really happy and at the last 10 seconds again I got through. It was tough because being a point break everybody is paddling up the point and you can’t sit in the place you want to."
Yuri Sodre narrowly scraped through to Round Three in a low scoring tussle relying on tactics and wave selection to claim the small score required to advance. Sodre had a similar performance in his day-one heat and is yet to step into top gear.
"I got through again but I don’t know what is happening at the moment. It was scary because there are so many good waves and I didn’t get any again but in the end I got the wave I needed to go into the next heat."
O’NEILL CWC SCOTLAND ROUND THREE RESULTS
Heat 1: Joan Duru (FRA) 12.93, Jay Quinn (NZL) 8.73, Dion Atkinson (AUS) 8.50
Heat 2: Yujiro Tsuji (JPN) 13.54, Tim Boal (FRA) 12.34, Marc Lacomare (FRA) 7.13
REMAINING O’NEILL CWC SCOTLAND ROUND THREE MATCH-UPS
Heat 3: Reubin Pearce (GBR), Alain Riou (PYF), Russel Winter (GBR)
Heat 4: Hodei Collazo (EUK), Charles Martin (GLP), Lincoln Taylor (AUS)
Heat 5: Adrien Toyon (REU), Richard Christie (NZL), Yuri Sodre (BRA)
Heat 6: Romain Cloitre (FRA), Leonardo Neves (BRA) Micah Lester (GBR)
Heat 7: Brent Dorrington (AUS), Vincent Duvignac (FRA), Christophe Allary (REU)
Heat 8: Davey Cathels (AUS), Kevin Sullivan (HAW), Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
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