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 CHILE |
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SELMAN, MERELLO AND NAVARRO: CHILEAN HEROS The Foster’s tour visited Chile for the Rip Curl Pro Search WCT where two expectations became reality. El Gringo showed his perfect oceanic fury and secondly, local surfers proved their great knowledge of their home to stand out in national surf. Manuel Selman and Cristian Merello were the two Chilean surfers who made it to the main event after being the best of the Arica Trials. Round 1 of the Rip Curl Pro Chile started for the local surfers with Cristian Merello’s performance in a very tough heat against Mick Fanning and Dean Morrison. Merello couldn’t beat Aussie experience in competition and the third place drove him directly to the second round. Manuel Selman had to fight against Kelly “the King” Slater and Chris Ward on heat 9 of the first round. Just as his fellow countryman, he ended up in third place and with a new chance to keep on going on the second round. The second round began with Merello against Taj Burrow –Australia- on the heat 1 but in the end, the 5.90 score combination couldn’t beat 13.50 points that Burrow had accumulated on his best two rides. The Chilean surfer could only ride three waves during the heat and, unfortunately, left Chile with just one surfer in action, Manuel Selman. If the first round was a difficult one for Selman,
because he had to compete against Slater and Ward, the man to man
modality of the second round was not easier. The three times “Andy was lucky, I feel great because I could make him worry… I know I’ll beat him some day”, said Manuel Selman to the media when he got out of the water. Selman-Navarro put things on its place The Foster’s Surf Showdown was men business, when El Gringo showed its real power and not everyone had the guts to challenge it. However, the Ramon Navarro-Manuel Selman couple proved their greatness and won the Expression session. The Winners had to fight against the following
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Manuel Selman y Christian Merello
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