From the 25th to the 30th of January, some of the best surfers in the world surfed in the first edition of the WSL Pro Taghazout Bay, the 1st QS 5000 in the history of Morocco.
Now that the competition is in the book, we can officially say that it was LIT from start to finish. The conditions were pumping on the backup spot of Anza for the first 4 day of competition and then the world-class spot of Anchor Point awoke for the last 2 days.
So much so that the event champion, Nat Young (American), called it one of the best QS he has ever surfed in!
Nat Young was untouchable during the competition: he defeated Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), ranked 6th in the CT, during the ¼ finals, and then easily defeated Vasco Ribeiro (Portugal) during the semi.
A final for the ages
On the opposite side of Nat Young for the final was Alonso Correa hailing straight from Peru. On his journey to the final, he first beat the South African Shane Sykes during the ¼ finals. The semi-finals opposed him to Frederico Morais, winner of the Hawaian Pro in November 2019. Alonso Correa left zero chances to Frederico after closing his heat with two nearly perfect waves scoring 9.60 (!) and 8.73!
And then they were two… Alonso Correa started the final with an absolute bang scoring a 9.10 on his first wave. The conditions were pumping and the set kept on coming. Right from the get-go of this final, the tension was up and everyone was wondering how Nat Young would answer that first blow from the Peruvian.
He spared no time and regained the lead right back on his first wave scoring a near perfect 9.67 and then backing up that perfection with a 8.67. He would not give the lead back despite Alonso best effort to catch up with him.
“Anza and Anchor Point are two magical waves. The locals are very lucky to live here” said 2nd-placed Alonso Correa.
European surfers scored well during the competition.
Of the eight surfers qualified for the ¼ finals, three were from Europe : Tristan Guilbaud from France, Frederico Morais and Vasco Ribeiro from Portugal. Despite a great showing in Round 4 (17.27) and Round 5 (15.40), the French surfer hailing from Vendée couldn’t go past Frederico Morais during the ¼ finals.
While the wave where pumping during the first heat of the ¼ finals, a brief lull was observed during Heat 2 and 3: Jake Marshall and Vasco Ribeiro managed to get only 5 waves total, while Tristan Guilbaud and Frederico Morais got only 10 waves total.
The two Portuguese could not make it through the semi-finals but it remains a great showing from the European surfer crowd.
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