Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro

ASP 1 Star Mens WQS event
North Beach Durban South Africa
14 - 17 May 2009

East London's Royden Bryson blasts his way to Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro title

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 17 May, 2009 : - - Royden Bryson (East London) made the most of the great conditions at Durban's North Beach as he out surfed Durban local Antonio Bortoletto in the final of the 1* WQS Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro. Bryson led from the start, and despite his best efforts Bortoletto was unable to chase down Bryson's eventual heat total of 12.25, coming close with a score of 11.90.

Bryson and Bortoletto traded waves in a very closely contested final, with Bryson adopting a high risk approach by boosting a big and clean front side 360 air. The seventh edition of the contest, which was held between 15 - 17 May, offered over US$10 000 in prize money available and featured an exciting man on man heat structure.

Bryson was understandably elated with his victory, saying that "it is not often that you get to win a WQS event, so this is something I will remember for a long time". With the amount of surfing talent in Durban, Bryson said that "it is not easy coming here and winning an event, but the win will give me a lot of confidence for the rest of the year, as I have got many big WQS ahead of me". "

This win is definitely a push in the right direction, I don't normally do well in the smaller surf, so I am stoked to get a result here". Bryson described the conditions as "small and tricky, but the waves were running and it was very contestable".

The third and final day of the contest was one in which the remaining top seeds stamped their authority on the event, with juniors such as Casey Grant (Scottburgh) and Nic Godfrey (St. Francis) only getting as far as the quarter-finals thanks to Royden Bryson and Simon Nicholson (Durban). Bryson had set the tempo early in the day, posting a heat score of 16.50 out of a possible 20 in the 4th round, bettering his score of 16.25 set yesterday.

Finalists Bortoletto and Bryson were up against Nicholson and Ricky Basnett (Bluff) in the their respective semi-finals. Nicolson's massive experience surfing all of the breaks along Durban's Golden Mile had made him a serious title contender, although he was up against Bortoletto, who is arguably the surfer most familiar with the waves at North Beach. Bortoletto made his experience count and eventually edged Nicolson by a mere 1.1 points.

The other semi-final, between Bryson and Basnett, saw Bryson continue his trend of setting big scores in every heat he surfs. In the three rounds before the semi final, Bryson posted victorious scores of 16.25, 16.5 and 15.15, and sealed his spot in the final by virtue of another big score, a 14.75. Basnett had no response to Bryson's stellar performance, managing only to post a heat score of 9.75.

Eventual winner Royden Bryson and Shane Thorne (Durban) were involved in one of the most entertaining early heats of the morning, with Thorne's late charge and competitive score of 15.10 not good enough to chase down Bryson's 16.50, or to advance through to the next round. Mike Frew, Lizzard's Marketing Manager, said that "the whole weekend was great, and Antonio Bortoletto, who is our top team rider, making the final made it even better".

Frew said it was interesting to see how the older guys handled the man on man format, saying "the more experienced guys were more comfortable surfing man on man heats, and it showed". "The younger guys were threatening", said Frew, "but it was the older, experienced crew who really dominated".

Final
1 Royden Bryson
2 Antonio Bortoletto

Semi-Final 1
1 Antonio Bortoletto
2 Simon Nicholson

Semi-Final 2
1 Royden Bryson
2 Ricky Basnett

Check the Full Results

WQS ratings after the 1 Star Lizzard Nando's Sur fPro

1	Melling,Adam	AUS	9076
2	Ross,Daniel	AUS	8325
3	Wright,Owen	AUS	7838
4	Duru,Joan	FRA	7663
5	Andre,Jadson	BRA	7475
6	Simpson,Brett	USA	7338
7	Polo,Marco	BRA	6950
8	Thompson,Jay	AUS	6900
9	Yeomans,Nathan	USA	6813
10	Payne,Dusty	HAW	6800
11	Munro,Luke	AUS	6588
12	Thornton,Blake	AUS	6438
13	Logie,Travis	ZAF	6301
14	Zubizarreta,Gony	ESP	6238
15	Jackson,Brandon	ZAF	6138
16	Atkinson,Dion	AUS	6000
17	Gudauskas,Tanner	USA	5850
18	Paulino,Pablo	BRA	5713
19	Wilkinson,Matt	AUS	5700
20	Sodre,Yuri	BRA	5600
21	Courtney,Drew	AUS	5588
22	Silva,Jean da	BRA	5525
23	Ohno,Masatoshi	JPN	5389
24	Gonzalez,Jonathan	CNY	5300
25	Hall,Glenn	IRE	5288
26	Neves,Leonardo	BRA	5206
27	Gudauskas,Patrick	USA	5200
28	Moura,Paulo	BRA	5151
29	Howse,Jarrad	AUS	5138
30	Nicol,Yadin	AUS	5101
31	Wright,Warwick	ZAF	4926
32	Taylor,Lincoln	AUS	4851
33	Toth,Brian	PRI	4839
34	Ware,Austin	USA	4832
35	Savalli,Hugo	REU	4775
36	Joske,Heath	AUS	4738
37	Giorgi,Marco	URY	4725
38	Lacomare,Marc	FRA	4701
39	Collazo,Hodei	EUK	4601
40	Sedley,Leigh	AUS	4563
41	Robertson,Adam	AUS	4501
41	Sullivan,Jarrad	AUS	4501
43	Gudauskas,Dane	USA	4463
44	Allary,Christophe	REU	4454
45	Dantas,Wiggolly	BRA	4451
46	Mathews,Mark	AUS	4426
47	Ettinger,Brad	USA	4414
48	Selman,Manuel	CHL	4407
49	Campbell,Luke	AUS	4400
50	Flintoff,Kirk	AUS	4376

Check the Full Ratings

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Previous reports:
# 1 : Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro WQS 1 Star returns to Durban
# 2 : Bortoletto keeps eyes on Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro prize
# 3 : Top Saffas all set for battle at Lizzard Nando's Surf Pro.. 

# 4 : Lizzard Nando’s Surf Pro to adopt man-on-man format 
# 5 : Top seeds survive Day 1 of the Lizzard Nando’s Surf Pro 
# 5 : Nicholson knocks out top seed in Lizzard Nando's drama 

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Rob Evans

WQS Contests - Surfersvillage