Surfing: Duo advance to next round as NZ sit in ninth

JC Susan in action in Peru at the World Surfing Games. Photo / Isa Tweedle

The New Zealand team had another successful day at the Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games at Punta Rocas, Peru, with two of the three surfers in action advancing to the fourth repechage round in the Open Men's Division.

The surf conditions remained excellent for the fourth straight day with 2.0m of swell and glassy surface conditions which competitors relished the chance to compete in with only three other surfers in the water.

Mount Maunganui surfer JC Susan started strongly in his heat posting a 5.5 point ride on his first wave and he backed it up with a 6.17 for several searing backhand re-entries. The 11.67 point heat total had Susan in first place until the dying stages of the heat when he was pushed back to second by Puerto Rico's Ricardo Delgado who posted a 7.43 point ride.

"Pretty stoked to get two heats in a day today," said Susan. "You can't free surf here because there's too much hustling going on with other competitors. I think the Auckland champs that I went in the day before I came over to Peru served me well as I surfed about five heats that day."

Placing second means that Susan will now meet Zen Wallis from Piha in the fourth round when the two surfers face off against competitors from Chile and Uruguay tomorrow.

"I should have surfed my last wave better so I didn't have to surf against Zen. I am not sure if we will talk strategy before the heat, I think just having two Kiwis in one heat will make the others nervous," said Susan.

Susan has had to surf his backhand throughout the event and while it is a point of difference compared to many of the top seeds at the event, he concedes that he has to pick the right waves with the steep walls, as he can't complete the big roundhouse cutbacks like his team mates do on their forehand.

Contesting the final two heats of the day, Wallis was first to post a heat win with a calculated performance that he punctuated with a 7.77 point ride to close out the heat. Wallis finished with an 11.9 point heat total to advance alongside Yosis Delgado from Venezuela. New Zealand currently sit in ninth place on the team rankings.