Aritz goes big in Tahiti, with a ASP World Tour career best 3rd!

Aritz Aranburu (EUK) surfed the event of his life this week at the Billabong Pro Tahiti.   Not only did the injury-plagued Basque surfer have the infamous shallow reef of Teahupoo to contend with, he also seemingly had a mountain to climb as regards his heat draw, which could not have been tougher.  However, if anyone doubted the 23 year-old surfer in his second year on tour, they were soon to be proved wrong.  

In round one, Aritz faced USA sensation Dane Reynolds, who was to be his first scalp.  In Round 2, he drew the 9-times world champion Kelly Slater, a previous winner of the Tahitian Event and a surfer who can never be underestimated until the final hooter sounds.  Having failed to win a heat in the first two events of the year, Aritz appeared to grow in confidence with each passing set.  He opened with a score of 9.77 for a perfectly surfed barrel and from that moment, the champion was playing catch-up.  Aritz then backed up his score with another tube, which bagged him a 7.5.  Kelly of course stepped up to the mark and fought until the dying seconds with a huge turn but could not find the same quality of waves and failed to achieve the scores her needed.

With the world champion defeated, Aritz stormed through his Round 3 heat with Damien Hobgood (USA) who is also a former winner of the event.  By this point, everybody was taking note of the giant-killing Rookie.  Tom Whitaker then failed to hold him back in the quarter finals and Aritz found himself in his first ASP World Tour semi final against Bobby Martinez.  

In the semi-final, Aritz did not go down without a battle.   His second wave gained him a hugely respectable score of 8.40 and he was just left searching for the all-important supporting score.  While Bobby racked up an 8.50 and 8.67, Aritz could only find a 6.83 and as the hooter sounded, his luck ran out.  The fact that Bobby Martinez then went on to beat Taj Burrow and take the contest crown only further indicates the heights to which Aritz had risen during the competition.

Speaking of heights, this 3rd place finish in Tahiti shot Aritz up the ASP World Tour rankings from 39th to 19th.  This is a career best for the 23 year-old Basque surfer and a dream result for him on the Dream Tour.

Credit photo: www.aspworldtour.com