Brazilian takes Ballito Pro title

BRAZILIAN Deivid Silva was crowned winner of the 2019 Ballito Pro after convincingly defeating Jack Freestone (Australia) in the final of the 51st edition of the world’s longest running professional surfing event on Sunday.

The last day of the first QS10,000 rated World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) event was held in 1.3 to 1.5 metre surf at Willard Beach, with occasional larger set waves and a strong southerly cross-shore wind which created tricky bumps on the wave faces. Silva and 2018 event runner-up Freestone, both members of the elite Top 32 ranked surfers on the elite WSL Championship Tour (CT), opted for a power surfing strategy on finals day. In the 35 minute final, Silva started strongly by unleashing three massive backhand turns for an excellent 8.33 out of 10, which immediately put his opponent under pressure.

Freestone could only produce a series of low-scoring rides before Silva picked up a beautiful set wave and delivered two gravity-defying manoeuvres that the judges rewarded with a near-perfect 9.3. That put the Australian into a combination situation and needing to find two new scores totalling 17.64 before time ran out and he had to settle for second successive runner-up finish.

The victory and haul of 10,000 points saw Silva rocket 126 places up the QS rankings to No. 4.

South African surfers making the top 50 on the WSL Qualifying Series (QS) Rankings (after Ballito Pro) are Beyrick de Vries (26), Adin Masencamp (38), Matt McGillivray (45) and Dylan Lightfoot (48).