It is already known that in the fight to compete there is no room for fatigue. Moreover, San Juan offers a different challenge every day to the surfers participating in this seventh edition of La Caja de Canarias La Santa Surf Pro 2006 4 stars and if they are not focused and prepared they run the risk of being eliminated. Yesterday, the favorites suffered the consequences of a wave on which they had to fight hard to achieve a winning maneuver.
The four canaries present in the third round were very good, but not all managed to qualify for the next phase. The conejero Echedey Mederos was brilliant, but could not beat the Brazilian Leonardo Neves and the Reunion Island Frederic Robien, so he had to settle for third place. As soon as Echedey handed over his white lycra, it was also conejero Leny Perdomo who took over. For most of the 25 minutes that the heat lasts, the conejero occupied the second place, which gave him the ticket to stay alive in this competition, but he ended up succumbing to two surf monsters such as the Brazilian Rodrigo Dornelles and the Australian Sam Page. To these two setbacks we must add that of José María Cabrera, who was close to achieving qualification, but also fell short. The Tenerife native Jonathan González had different luck, who was lucky enough to pass the round after defeating the Australians Jarrad Sullivan and Joe McGregor.
The favorites, with a lot of suffering
And to surf in San Juan you have to work hard and if not, ask the Brazilian surfer Adriano de Souza, a 'rider' who landed on the Island with an immaculate letter of introduction, but who was surprised by two surfers with a lot of experience, the French Eric Rebiere and the Moroccan Abdel El Harim. But this happened in the second heat. In the first heat, the Australians Kirk Flintoff, winner of the 2004 edition, and Matt Wilkinson, who was very good in the El Confital event, were on display.
Heats three and four were also dominated by Australian surfers. Kieren Perrow led the third heat, while Drew Coutney was strong in the fourth. From the rest of the heats, the stumbles of Pablo Gutiérrez, leader of the EPSA circuit, Aritz Aranburu or Tiago Pires, among others, stood out. In addition, the Australian surfer Jarrad Howse embroidered his performance in the twelfth heat with an impressive maneuver `made in WCT' that earned him a '9' from the judges.
The 'anticipated finals' start
A four-star is different and that can be seen from the round of thirty-seconds in which the duels become authentic anticipated finals. The first heat, which will be held from 9:00 a.m., will feature the Australian Kirk Flintoff, the French Eric Rebiere, the Tahitian Michel Bourez and the Hawaiian Torrey Meister. Four very good surfers who will delight fans of this sport, as will surely happen in the second heat, in which the Moroccan Abdel El Harim will challenge the Australian trident formed by Matt Wilkinson, Kierren Perrow and Joe McGregor.
Following this, the third heat will have a Spanish representative, the Basque Eneko Acero, who will face the Australian Kai Otton, the South African David Richards and the Reunion Island Frederin Robin, while the American Tommy O'Brien will face the 'Brazilian trident' composed of Yuri Sodre, from the WCT, Andre Silva and Leonardo Neves.
The following four heats will also be very attractive. In the fifth, Gony Zubizarreta will look for his pass to the next phase to have possibilities of achieving the European title; in the sixth, the Australian Jarrad Howse will continue to marvel with his surfing. Finally, the penultimate will have a Canarian presence, since in the seventh will be Jonathan González, along with the current champion of this event, Patrick Beven.
Great expectation
The most spectacular qualifiers of the championship are approaching and that makes the expectation in the conejero 'spot' greater and greater. The media and the thousands of 'crazy' people of this sport are approaching this wonderful corner to enjoy the best surfing that can be seen today in the Canary Islands. In addition, the weather conditions are accompanying so that the show looks as a four-star deserves. Today the thirty-second finals will start to, finally, lead to the quarterfinals. The appointment will be from 9:00 a.m.
In addition, it should be remembered that on Saturday 21, from 10:00 p.m., the Spanish groups Seguridad Social and Los Secretos will star in a concert in Caleta de Famara before the safe attendance of thousands of people who will enjoy the successes of these two classics of the Spanish music scene.
