ARICA, Chile (Thursday, June 20, 2007) - Only seven heats of the Rip Curl Pro Chile, stop No. 4 of 10 on the 2007 Foster's ASP World Tour, were run today, but near perfect rides were ridden in four of them. Former three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons (HAW) earned a much-needed 9.70 out of 10.00 with just three minutes left in his heat against local Chilean wildcard Manuel Selman. The defending Rip Curl Pro Search champion was critically close to adding another 33rd (last) place result to his ratings scoreline when he twisted fate with a deep tuberide in the dying minutes of the heat.

Irons scraped through(from the ASP - World Tour Pictures gallery)

"I was ready to go home at the end of that heat; I was about to pack my bags and go and have a two-week break," Irons said. "It's just the way my year has been going. It was a really slow and sketchy heat and the local kid knew where to surf and got a couple of 6.0s. I had a 3.0 and thought that was it. I needed and 8.50, and that point, there weren't too many 8.50's coming through. I knew I was in trouble."

"I was paddling into the wave and it sucked up like Pipe - it had a nice line to it," Irons said. "I made sure I was a little behind the peak and I knew I had to get really deep - I needed an 8.50. Right toward the end it got kind of washy and wild but when I came out it was instant relief; I knew I got the score, but I wasn't sure if he was on the wave behind me."

Selman was on the wave following, but failed to emerge from the tube. The remaining four heats of Round 1 and the first three heats of Round 2 were run in solid eight to 10 foot (two to three plus metre) waves before inconsistent conditions and unfavorable winds forced officials to call off competition for the day. Like Irons, Leonardo Neves (BRA), Kai Otton (AUS) and Kieren Perrow (AUS) also posted waves in the high 9.0s today. Otton paired his 9.93 with an 8.17 to earn the highest heat total of the event thus far, an 18.10. His 9.93 wave score ties Neves' for the event highest as well.

"I love these kind of waves," Otton said. "I'm from the South Coast in Australia- the far south coast of New South Wales - and there are reefs and ledges everywhere there. I've grown up surfing these types of waves but this one is unbelievable. It's definitely dangerous. It's a nine out of 10 for danger for sure."

Brazilian Leonardo Neves looked dangerous when he came out of a deep barrel to beat Cory Lopez (USA) and Shaun Cansdell (AUS) in their Round 1 clash."I dropped down, turned and didn't event look," Neves said. "The surfboard did all of the work and then when I came out of the barrel I thought maybe it would be a good score like a 7.0 or an 8.00. A minute or two later I heard the score and thought, 'wow, a 9.93, it was really good!' I am really happy."

Former Foster's ASP World Tour surfer and event wildcard Perrow took out world No. 5 Bede Durbidge (AUS) after earning a 9.73 late in their Round 2 duel. "The wave was doubling up so I really wanted to get underneath it at the start," Perrow said. "It's kind of hard to get in some of those waves out there so I tried to be a little deep. I took off and saw that section so I had to high-line it in the beginning, but then it really opened up. My board was getting bounced around a fair bit inside, but I saw the exit and it just sort of spat me through it. I was so stoked. It's the first time I've claimed a wave in a while."

Chilean wildcard Christian Merello was not quite as lucky. Morello pulled into a huge closeout wave and had to come in and regain his composure before heading back out into his heat with tour front-runner Taj Burrow. Burrow easily eliminated Merello in the large, almost life-threatening Round 2 conditions today. "It's a crazy slab," Burrow said. "You just have to pick that right one and hopefully get spat out the end. When you come out, you have to start moving because if you get cleaned up in there you'll end up like Royden (Bryson) earlier - he got hammered. It was scary to watch. You've got to get in and out."

Bryson suffered a heavy wipeout and was washed up on the rocks during his Round 1 heat against fellow South Africans Greg Emslie and Travis Logie. "It was a super weird heat," Logie said. "It was the first time that three South Africans have been in a heat in World Tour history. We thought it was going to be a fun heat, but it was actually a bit heavy. I snapped a board and Royden landed straight on dry reef and I think he's a bit concussed actually. He paddled back out and he was throwing up so I'm a bit worried about him. I hope he's okay."

Bryson is reported to be doing fine, as is Adriano de Souza who needed 15 stitches after hitting his head on the reef yesterday. Oddly enough, the two will meet up in Heat 11 of Round 2. With the swell expected to hold through tomorrow morning, contest officials are confident that Heat 4 of Round 2 will hit the water at 7:30am local time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yce7rfyxhPw

ROUND 2 RESULTS:

Going through			Knocked out
	Taj Burrow	13.50	5.90	Christian Merello
	Andy Irons	13.20	12.00	Manuel Selman
	Kieren Perrow	13.73	11.50	Bede Durbidge

REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:

Rider		vs	Rider
	Tom Whitaker	vs	Bruno Santos
	Daniel Wills	vs	David Weare
	Cory Lopez	vs	Luke Munro
	Dean MOrrison	vs	Neco Padaratz
	Chris Ward	vs	Gabe Kling
	Ben Dunn	vs	Troy Brooks
	Luke Stedman	vs	Michael Lowe
	Adriano de Souza	vs	Royden Bryson
	Adrian Buchan	vs	Shaun Cansdell
	Ricky Basnett	vs	Rodrigo Dornelles
	Frederick Patacchia	vs	Dayyan Neve
	Bernardo Miranda	vs	CJ Hobgood
	Greg Emslie	vs	Josh Kerr

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