The first men's heats at the Surf City El Salvador Pro ran eight days ago. After more than a week of waiting, today provided a full day of proper, rippable waves for the Championship Tour. Like a cool Corona after a hot day, it felt like the WSL was due for a day of real surf, and that’s what they got.
But there’s plenty more on the way. The swell for tomorrow isn’t just coming from the right direction, it’s a proper stunner. Surfline is eyeing the biggest swell of the season. The 5 feet at 16 seconds SSW should show solid overhead walls when it arrives on Friday morning. It’ll be offshore, rising tide and loaded matchups.
Aaron Hughes/WSL
Three rookies, Al Cleland Jr, George Pittar, Marco Mignot, knocked out higher-seated opponents in the Round of 32. They all had more than a few impressive moments against Filipe Toledo, Jack Robinson and Rio Waida (respectively). Seriously, a year ago, who could have predicted Al would knock out Filipe at a crumbly, onshore right point? But the Mexican got it done with better wave selection and several meat cleaver hacks.
“I saw the heat draw and I was just in disbelief,” Cleland said. “Filipe is one of my idols and I’ve always wanted to surf against him,” Cleland said. “To surf against him in these kinds of waves is an honor. I can’t wait for more. I just have so many good friends in the town and I respect so many people here. I love them and they love me so it feels like a second home to me. Coming in to the crowd cheering for me was so special.”
Emma Sharon/WSL
The day was full of gritty, narrow margin wins. Event favorite Yago Dora is surfing with nine stitches in his foot, an injury from freesurfing Punta Roca. He got the W over Sammy Pupo in the first heat of the day.
“It’s tough to be up against your friends, but I’m wishing for Sammy to do good on tour,” Yago said. I know his potential, and know he can do better than what he’s doing. Unfortunately we keep having these matchups. Portugal was grindy and here it was grindy again. I can’t wait for us to have a proper good heat. I was actually stoked we had a bunch of lay days because my foot is still healing and still hurts a little bit but it’s a lot better now. To make two heats is already a victory for me so I’m stoked and want to keep carrying the momentum from that win in Portugal.”
Speaking of grindy, South Africa’s Matthew McGillivray has a sneaky x-factor at this wave. He made the semis last year. He’s not the smoothest surfer on the rail, but he knows exactly when to hit the throttle on a right point, and his air game is reliable. He used it in his late comeback over former event winner Griffin Colapinto. The Channel Islands team lost it when Matt belted the final wave in the waning minutes with a nasty air rev into the flat.
Aaron Hughes/WSL
“It's really hard to make it out this round,” said McGillivray. “Everyone's so talented. Then when I saw I was coming up against Griff [Colapinto], in this event obviously he’s so good out there. He's so hard to beat out here. I was really nervous coming into today, but was trying to let that all go. ...
