Denny Irish Team

Day 3- Denny Irish Surf Team face eliminations en-masse. First into the water on a humid cloudy day was Nicole Morgan in the
women’s repercharge round 2 in the very first heat on podium 2. Nicole faced surfers from Brazil, Tahiti and Columbia. A stern test for the Irish national champion as the south American surfers in particular have been performing exceptionally well through the event. Nicole led early and was particular in her wave selection, picky enough to have the team manager holding his breath as the heat ticked down to the final minutes and she was lying in 3rd place. But her patience paid off and she found the scoring wave she needed to progress into repercharge round 3 at the expense of the Tahitian and Columbian girls.

Next up were the remaining Open Surfers with Stephen Kilfeather into the fray first, at the same time as Nicole's 3rd round heat... once more the team having to split their attention between the 2 podiums. Today Stephen faced surfers from Columbia, Argentina and El Salvador, this time the South American advantage told. The South & Central American surfers have seemed more comfortable with the highly unpredictable conditions on Playa Hermosa and it is showing in their results. The result being Stephen's elimination from the event but earning 128 points for the team in his efforts.

Yesterday's elimination of Ronan Oertzen placed him 97th in the world, not bad for his first world senior event. Tahlia Britton meanwhile placed 49th in the women's event and earned 240 points for the team.

While Stephen was being eliminated, Nicole Morgan was back in action on podium 2 facing surfers from New Zealand, Venezuela and Chile. This time around the wave selection didn't quite work for Nicole and she was pushed out of the qualifying slots but finishing in the world top 30 to earn further points for the team.

Back on Podium 1 the top 2 Irish men’s surfers were facing battles to stay in contest. First up was Liam Joyce facing 2 surfers from Austria (don't laugh, they aren't the only landlocked competitors), and the 3rd surfer was Hawaiian. Liam and one of the Austrians were able to find waves allowing them to get multiple manoeuvres and earning better wave scores. The computer system went down half-way through the heat while Liam was leading, so for the 2nd half of the heat none of the surfers in the water knew what their positions were, or what they needed to do to qualify. Normally the commentators read out the scores of each wave surfed, and tell the surfers what score they need to move up in position in the heat. The judges have a back-up paper approach when the computers are down, but this does not allow for live scoring due to the complex calculations involved in generating the scores. By the end of the heat there was still not computer read-out, but the Irish support on the beach was confident of Liam's progression, though not sure if he would go through in 1st or 2nd .

While still waiting for the results of Liam's heat Fergal Smith was next into the water and faced surfers from Argentina, El Salvador and Italy. The Salvadoran surfer only 16 yrs of age, while the Argentinean was extremely aggressive. Eventually the aggression of the Argentinean cost Fergal, by drawing an interference call against Fergal. The penalty for an interference is the surfer only gets half the score of his 2nd best wave. Video captured by members of the Irish team showed the call was
incorrect, but it was already too late and the frustration it caused Fergal led to his elimination from the competition.

One piece of good news during the heat was the announcement that Liam Joyce had indeed progressed to the next round in the Open division.

Fergal placed 81st in the open division earning 128 points for the team. Liam is now the last remaining surfer in the Open division for Ireland.

He surfs again on Tuesday, again on Podium 1, in heat 3 of repercharge 3 at 10am Costa Rican time, so 5pm Irish time.

The Longboarders will start their event on Wednesday for those that are waiting on news of John Mc Curry and Emmet O'Doherty