KwaZulu- Natal, Ballito  –  The event that was scheduled to start on Saturday June 28th was postponed due to extreme surf and gale force winds that prevented organisers from completing the event within the assigned window.

The four remaining heats of the Women’s Round of 48 were completed in choppy two-meter surf at Surfers Beach in Ballito this morning, with the final eight surfers advancing into the Round of 24.

All 24 surfers remaining in the event earned an equal 19th place finish, splitting the prize money and ratings points equally with each surfer taking home R7900 (US$1000) and 1200 ratings points.

Top South African in the event Rosy Hodge (East London) dominated her Round of 48 heat over Johanne Defray (FRA), Laura Enever (AUS) and Claudia Goncalves (BRA). The current ASP World No. 13 used here elite competition experience to out-position her rivals, snatching the two best waves of the heat to advance in first place.

“The way things have gone has been a bit of a shake-up for everyone, I don’t think anyone’s really been in this situation before where you make it through your heats and then it’s actually the end of your run,” said Hodge. “I’ve always looked forward to the Mr Price Pro and both Mr Price and the ASP are making the best effort that they can but it’s just a situation where the surf is so variable and you can’t control what the ocean is doing.”

Women’s Round of 48 Results:
Heat 9: Paige Hareb (NZL)11.67; Heather Clark (ZAF) 7.66; Crystal Vail(AUS) 3.57; Suelen Naraisa (BRA) 3.06
Heat 10: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.67; Amandine Sanchez (FRA) 5.17;Laura Macauly (AUS) 4.83; Stacey Guy (ZAF) 3.00
Heat 11: Roseanne Hodge (ZAF) 11.66; Johanne Defay (FRA) 5.70; Laura Enever (AUS) 5.36; Claudia Goncalves (BRA) 3.97
Heat 12: Coco Ho (HAW) 10.26; Francisca Santos (PRT) 7.00; Anne-Cecile Le Tallec (FRA) 2.83; Erica Hosseini (USA) 0.00

Jordy Smith showing why it’s no accident he’s number six in the world.

Brazil is on the opposite side of the world from Australia, staying awake for the webcast is pretty hard. It also doesn’t help that the Hang Loose Pro has been moved from summer to winter, that means the few female spectators that are on the beach are wearing much more clothing than we’re use to.

Another factor that’s working against us Aussies staying awake for the webcast, is that the commentary is boring. There’s only one commentator in the booth and he never had anything interesting to say and with long pauses in between sets, there’d often be a couple minutes of silence. This event shows that there’s a strong argument for the ASP to have their own commentating team who travels to all the events.

Kelly Slater won his Round Two heat against Brazilian wildcard Bernardo Miranda, but he only just snuck through. And yes, he was riding his self shaped “wizard” board. But in the four to five foot bumpy conditions Slater looked out of sync, he fell a couple of times when he normally wouldn’t and only managed to win 13.04 to 11.16.

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.00 def. Guilherme Ferreira (BRA) 9.17
Heat 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 11.84 def. Gustavo Fernandes (BRA) 8.70
Heat 3: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.04 def. Bernardo Miranda (BRA) 11.16
Heat 4: Neco Padaratz (BRA) 13.40 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 11.90
Heat 5: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.07 def. Ben Bourgeois (USA) 9.17
Heat 6: Nathaniel Curran (USA) 13.50 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 8.67
Heat 7: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.00 def. Marlon Lipke (DEU) 10.40
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 11.60 def. Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 11.16
Heat 9: Michael Picon (FRA) 14.07 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 8.34
Heat 10: Greg Emslie (ZAF) 13.60 def. Jay Thompson (AUS) 11.17
Heat 11: Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.57 def. Nic Muscroft (AUS) 8.93
Heat 12: Roy Powers (HAW) 12.43 def. Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 12.20
Heat 13: Ben Dunn (AUS) 9.67 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 9.60
Heat 14: Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.00 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 10.93
Heat 15: Dustin Barca (HAW) 13.07 def. Drew Courtney (AUS)12.77
Heat 16: Heitor Alves (BRA) 10.57 def. David Weare (ZAF) 5.84

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 2: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Tim Boal (FRA)
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 6: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Dustin Barca (HAW)
Heat 7: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS)
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Nathaniel Curran (USA)
Heat 10: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 11: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 12: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Chris Davidson (AUS)
Heat 13: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 14: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Josh Kerr (AUS)
Heat 15: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 16: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Chris Ward (USA)

read more of the story at surfinglife

A third of the world’s open-water sharks — including the great white and hammerhead — face extinction, according to a conservation survey that singles out overfishing as the main culprit. The survey of 64 species of open-water sharks and rays by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature notes the demand for shark fins, considered a Chinese delicacy, has soared along with income levels in China in the past decade.

Flinders University shark ecologist Charlie Huveneers says the proportion of sharks endangered was higher for the open-water sharks than for sharks in general, mainly because they were large species with slow reproductive rates and were slow to mature. Some, such as the grey nurse, produced only two pups every two years.

“That’s one of the reasons why that species is listed as critically endangered in NSW,” he said. Open-water shark species also lived in areas that were heavily fished and hard to regulate. The report identified the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharkand the giant devil rays as endangered. The smooth hammerhead, great white, basking and oceanic white-tip sharks are listed as vulnerable as are two species of makos.

Dr Huveneers said fishermen targeted sharks for their fins. The rest of it was discarded. Shark meat can fetch $1-$5 a kilogram, but the fin could bring up to $200 a kilogram. Commercial swordfish and tuna fisherman also caught sharks such as the blue shark and mako shark accidentally. Sharks are important in the ecosystem, especially those at the top of the food chain such as the white, great white and great hammerhead.

Reducing their numbers could prompt an increase in the number of cownose rays, which consumed scallops. “The cascading effect of the decreasing of large sharks has an impact on the whole ecosystem, including humans who work in and benefit from the scallop industry,” he said.

original story from theage.com.au