Find all today’s heat reports here on the liveticker.
You can also find the individual wave scores here. 

WOMEN’S FINAL:
Jalou Langeree (NED) V Ninja Ricot (GER / MRU) 

Just like Sebastian Ribeiro, we saw another heroic comeback performance from Ninja Ricot in the women’s doubles today.

As the next set reared up, both women came in on the first wave; Ninja further upwind pulled away and let Jalou go at it, but the reigning World Champ managed just two turns causing no threat to Ninja’s tally.

Jalou’s legs were clearly looking fresh, particularly coming off the top after such strong bottom turns. She was ultra fluid, kicking up a big fan of spray as she carved the board back beyond 180 towards the white water.

Both these women have beautiful caving and progressive surf styles. When they throw themselves low into a bottom turn they turn just as sharply back up the face as the men. We have two of the top three women in wave kiting going head to head here (we’re missing Moona Whyte who was competing on home turf at a US event).

Ricot (formerly Bichler) is the island’s heroine having won two world tour events on Mauritius 2012 and 2016, had already managed a score of 13.17 against Edin a couple of hours earlier in round five and 14.1 in her single elimination heat against Jalou.  (Jalou won that heat though with 15.77 from two waves, ejecting Ninja early, which is why Ninja had to fight her way up through so many double elimination rounds today).

The long and short of that little narrative is that this heat was far from over…

Jalou was getting stronger as the heat went on (this was her first heat of the day remember). Her turns were sharp and aggressive and she was shredding fluidly along the sections now. An 8.27 popped up on the livescore, a crushing blow from the world champion and she was sitting on 15.97, the highest heat score of the event.

Jalou’s tight and incisive top to bottom surfing is compact and controlled, keeping her right in the curling section all the time. Throughout the heat it’s fair to say that Ninja had the biggest hacks at the top of the biggest waves, but it was Jalou’s totally fluid, constant rail-to-rail surfing with speed and power that earned the biggest rewards from the judges. They may not have been the biggest waves in the set, but she worked them ideally to her strengths.

15.37 versus James’ 9.42 after two waves. Oh yes, this final was ON!

Airton looked better able to take advantage of the ‘dirtier’ sections on his hacking frontside approach, cutting back into the wave whenever an off-the-lip wasn’t possible. James, however, was unleashing thunderous hits right at wave’s peak, battering the crumbling lip line into submission.

Although he’d learnt from the single elimination final against Airton that focusing too much on chasing a barrel wasn’t a reliable strategy, he knew that if there was a sniff of a big one it needed to be his.

He closed the deficit; three turns for a 6.95 brought him up to 11.7, still trailing Airton’s 15.37.

James then switched his approach and started tacking back and forth in the upwind corner. He was looking for a wall with potential to throw and bailed early on a couple of waves even though they looked well set-up for multiple hits. He must have seen Airton’s combination strikes.

It was a quiet few minutes for Australian Carew until he managed a 5.23, taking him up to 12.18. He worked his way all the way down a really long wave from one side of the competition box to the other but managed only three turns because there had been so much white water to evade.

Wave ten for Airton was spectacular and obviously going to get a big score. An 8.83 dropped, made up of the most vertical, animalistic succession of turns and hits – perfectly at the lip every time and never out of the critical section. I hope we can show you that wave in full on the highlights video. It was absolutely incredible.

In the end the difference was that 8.83 wave where Airton plugged his brain directly into the main power supply of the wave and let the voltage flow through his body, charging that face as hard as any wave has ever been kited from start to finish. Total destruction.

Airton banked into yet another turn, brushed his fingers in the water as he looked up and saw the chance for shade. He allowed his turn to slow and bring him up the wave where he re-set his rail, pulled in and punched through the curtain. Sadly, no score showed up on the scoreboard – it was wave 17!

Once again a packed heat from these two and an absolute joy to watch: 15 counting waves each. There’s the bell. School’s out.

RESULT:
Airton Cozzolino is the Mauritius champion: 16.7 to 15.02.