Surf Abu Dhabi pro set for finals day on Sunday

Surf Abu Dhabi Pro, the inaugural World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour event in the Middle East, enters finals day on Sunday.

Saturday saw both the men’s and women’s quarter-finalists secured at Surf Abu Dhabi on Hudayriyat Island, with clean conditions throughout the day enabling the world’s best surfers to draw creative lines on the three-foot 500-meter-long rides.

Leading the youthful charge in the women’s competition, Australian surfer Molly Picklum and Hawaii’s Gabriela Bryan, both 22, along with rookies Erin Brooks, the 17-year-old Canadian, and Bella Kenworthy the 18-year-old American, took big qualifying round heat wins.

“I surf a lot of wave pools, so I feel very comfortable in them,” Brooks said. “I’m just so glad that we get to have an event here. It’s so special, and it’s so much fun knowing that you’re going to have perfect waves.”

Picklum added: “I’m stoked to be through to tomorrow for sure.”

In the men’s event, the youngest surfer on the men’s tour, 21-year-old Jackson Bunch, reeled through three different airs, combined with multiple critical hits to the lip, to earn the highest single wave score, a 9.23.

“I just knew I had to bring my A-game and pull out all the tricks out of the bag,” said the Hawaiian competitor. “I came in (to Abu Dhabi) end of November and was practicing with Seth Moniz and Barron [Mamiya] and got some good practice surfs in. So yeah, just stoked to execute that wave.”

Elsewhere, Australians Ethan Ewing and Jack Robinson carried their momentum from day one to progress into the quarter-finals, as did Indonesian surfer Rio Waida and Brazilian counterpart Yago Dora.

Sunday features quarter-finals, semi-finals and the grand final at the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro, the second event of this season’s WSL Championship Tour.

Surf Abu Dhabi – which was created in collaboration with Kelly Slater, widely regarded as the greatest surfer of all time – features state-of-the-art wave technology, powered by Kelly Slater’s WaveCo. The innovative man-made system holds multiple Guinness World Records, including the longest and largest artificial wave pool.

Watch LIVE

If you are unable to make it in person to Surf Abu Dhabi on Sunday, the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro Finals Day will be broadcast LIVE on WorldSurfLeague.com, and the free WSL App.

For more information, please visit WorldSurfLeague.com.