BYRON SURFER IN THICK OF ACTION
IT will be mate against mate today in the semi-finals of the WSL Men’s Pro event at the Australian Longboards Surfing Open at Kingscliff.
Young guns Jack Entwistle and Nic will face off in one semi while the other will see older duo Dane Pioli and Jared Neal, also good mates, go head to head.
Surfers in the men’s and women’s semi-finals – who had not been due to hit the water until Saturday – have been placed on standby for a 7am start to make the most of the expected increase in swell.
While the men will have an all Australian final, the Women’s Pro is much more an international affair with two Hawaiians, an American and a lone young Australian.
In a battle of the youngsters, current world champion Honolua Blomfield, 18, will fight out the first semi-final against 16-year-old Noosa surfer Emily Lethbridge, while the second semi has Hawaiian Kirra Seale in the water against 2017 champion, Californian Tory Gilkerson.
Open event organiser Sean McKeown said he was looking to run all of the finals during the morning.
“We are looking forward to some really good surfing as the form surfers of this year’s event go head-tohead,” he said. “Basically, it’s the old guard versus the young guns.”
While the bulk of the quarter-finals of both the men’s and women’s events were on day one, Entwistle and Jones booked the last two spots in yesterday’s waves that were waist-high.
Byron Bay’s Entwistle, 24, took on the last of the internationals, French-based Brazillian Bage Bayner.
Bayner, who is due to fly home next week in preparation for two LQS events in Portugal, had been one of the form surfers during the early rounds but played a continuous game of catch-up in the semi-final with Entwistle benefiting for better wave selection to take the final 12.07 to 10.40.
“The next three surfers in the contest are all pretty good, they’re all tour surfers in Nic, Jarred and Dano,” said Entwistle, son of former ASP world titleholder the late Stuart Entwistle.
“They’re all close mates and good surfers so it’s anyone’s competition.”
His good mate Jones followed him into the final winning the fourth and final quarterfinal against Sydney surfer William Crowe.