2019 Vissla Sydney Surf Pro Day 3 Called ON! Kelly Slater To Hit The Water In Round 2 Heat 9

  • Men’s Round 2 To Commence at 7:30 AM AEDT
  • Women’s Competition Off For The Day
  • Watch LIVE  at WorldSurfLeague.com
Pictured: Eleven times WSL World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) will hit the water today in Heat 9 of Round 2 at the Vissla Sydney Surf Pro QS6,000 at Manly.
Credit: © WSL / Cestari

 

The 2019 Vissla Sydney Surf Pro World Surf League  (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) 6000 event will continue today at Manly Beach. Men’s Round 2 is set to hit the water at 7:30 AM AEDT and will bring with it the event top seeds including 11-times WSL World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) who will surf Heat 9 of Round 2.

Men’s Round 2 will see all 24 heats surfed today at Manly. The Sydney Women’s Pro presented by Sisstrevolution is off for the day.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE BROADCAST LIVE AT WWW.WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM 

Or, Come down to Manly and watch the action from the sand as the greatest surfer of all time hits the water and enjoy the festival-like atmosphere being created by Vissla, Sisstrevolution and our other event partner’s wonderful activations.

Television newsfeeds along with images will be uploaded to the links above throughout the day.

The Vissla Sydney Surf Pro is a collaboration between World Surf League and Surfing NSW to run Sydney’s largest surfing event at the iconic Manly Beach.
DAY 2 WRAPUP:
The 2019 Vissla Sydney Surf Pro and Sydney Women’s Pro presented by Sisstrevolution continued Yesterday with Manly Beach providing small, but clean surf for a huge international field of competitors. The day saw the completion of Men’s Round 1 along with Women’s Round 2, setting the stage for the event top seeds to hit the water in the coming days.

Hawaiian Finn McGill (HAW) has a strong connection with the beaches of New South Wales having won a WSL World Junior Championship south of Sydney only 18 months ago. McGill is now setting his sights on CT qualification and needs some more solid results in Australia to set up his season. After an early Round elimination in Newcastle, McGill is banking on a big finish at the Vissla Sydney Surf Pro to set up is 2019 QS campaign.

“The best thing about starting the year off in Australia is there are the two events back-to-back and if you have a bad result at the first one you can shift your focus straight to the next one,” McGill said. “That’s pretty much what has happened to me, so I’m stoked to have come down to Manly and started off with a heat win. Australia is a really special place for me so it’s always good to come back — when I fly into Sydney and see the Harbour a lot of great memories come rushing back.”

Former Championship Tour (CT) competitor Mitch Crews (AUS) has had a few years away from full-time competing to focus on some personal projects and business opportunities. The 2014 CT Rookie Of The Year is keen to have a good crack at the QS this year and was stoked to post some good numbers in his opening heat and progress into Round 2.

“I’m really keen to compete this year,’ Crews said. “I’ve never lost the passion to compete but this year I want to really focus on competing well. I think that heat was a pretty good reflection of this as the waves were pretty small and average but I was pretty fired up. I’ve come off a really good run of solid waves at home so I didn’t think I’d perform that well today so I’m stoked to make that heat and hope to continue the form throughout the week.”

Reigning World Junior Champion Kirra Pinkerton (USA) kept her Australian QS momentum snowballing through her Round 1 heat at Manly. Pinkerton’s busy approach proved to pay dividends in the heat as she shifted across various different sandbanks and as a result, was rewarded with the win.

“The first heat is always nerve-racking,” said Pinkerton. “I’ve been in Australia for a little while now, so I think I’m beginning to adjust more to the Australian beach break conditions as they’re so different to California. In that heat, I originally looked at the right-handers that everyone was on, but it didn’t really work for me, so I decided to get busy and paddle around a lot more and I ended up on that left which ended up working for me.”

Pictured: Reigning WSL World Junior Champion Kirra Pinkerton (USA) continued her run of form in 2019, booking a spot into Round 3 at Manly.
Credit: © WSL / Matt Dunbar

Former Championship Tour competitor Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) has put CT qualification on the back burner to focus more on attempting to represent her home country of South Africa at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Buitendag wants to make sure she is in a good position in all areas of competition as she looks to make history next year in Japan.

“It’s a great part of our routine coming to Australia to compete every year,” Buitendag said. “It’s almost like a birthday I’m getting used to this annual trip to Manly. The waves aren’t amazing today but there is still some good shape when they come. Qualifying for the CT is always something that I’d focus my energy on but this year for me it’s more to do with the Olympics next year. It would be a massive honour and as it’s the first time in history — I’d love to be part of it.”

German surfer Rachel Presti (GER) revelled in the small junky onshore conditions for her opening exchange. The Florida based natural-footer smashed out a handful of impressive manoeuvres in the heat to notch up a respectable 11.73 two-wave heat total and get the win ahead of fancied opponents Canelle Bulard, Kobie Enright and Vittoria Farmer who claimed second, third and fourth.

“There’s always a huge relief to get through the first heat,” said Presti. “Wave choice was so key out there as the scores and scoring potential was so low. It’s a huge confidence boost to get a win in that heat, especially over competitors like the ones that were in that heat.”

All eyes will be on Manly beach tomorrow as the Men’s top seeds hit the water along with Eleven Times WSL World Champion Kelly Slater who will be surfing in Heat 9 of Round 2 at approximately 10:50 AM AEDT.

The 2019 Vissla Sydney Surf Pro and Sydney Women’s Pro presented by Sisstrevolution will run from March 18 – 24. For more information, results, images, highlights and live broadcast, head to www.worldsurfleague.com or check the free WSL App.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL DAY 1 RESULTS FROM THE VISSLA SYDNEY SURF PRO 

CLICK HERE FOR ALL DAY 1 RESULTS FROM THE SYDNEY WOMEN’S PRO pres. by SISSTREVOLUTION

For more information and 2018 highlights, check out sydneysurfpro.com. The live broadcast will be available on worldsurfleague.com
The Vissla Sydney Surf Pro is proudly supported by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW. The event is also proudly supported by Vissla, Sisstrevolution, Northern Beaches Council, Hotel Steyne, WSL, KeySun Zinke and Surfing NSW.

For more information, please visit WorldSurfLeague.com.

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