Beyrick makes history at Ballito Pro
One of the standouts of the tournament was his quarter-final defeat of another hometown favourite, Jordy Smith.
UMHLANGA’S Beyrick de Vries produced the best performance by a South African at this year’s Ballito Pro. He finished in fifth place which saw his world ranking jump from 98th to 12th, moving him into contention to qualify for the 2017 Samsung Galaxy WSL Championship Tour.
He also collected an additional R50 000 by winning both the Monster Energy ‘Wave of the Week’ video award, and the Zigzag Expression Session to cap one of the best weeks of his career.
“It’s just been an awesome week, one of the best weeks in a long time, maybe in my life. It’s just a crazy transition of emotions and the beach support was amazing.”
One of the standouts of the tournament was his quarter-final defeat of another hometown favourite, Jordy Smith.
“I was just trying to keep things logical and choose the two best waves and try to put emotion aside. I tried to treat the event like a club event. That first wave felt smooth. I haven’t had a 9.73 in a while and what a time and place to get one. That was the way you want to start any heat.
“Jordy has got me two times in the round of 16 in the past so we have a bit of history at this event and I just can’t seem to beat him. That last five minutes when I was wining felt like 15 minutes. I was telling myself not to look at my watch but could not help myself. So I’m just really grateful to be able to beat him in this event. It was really emotional coming back to the beach with such an important heat win in pumping surf.”
His heat will go down as one of the best heats ever surfed between two South Africans and the highest combined heat total of the Pro so far.
