[i]Monday 7 November, 2005
Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

Photo coutesy of www.aspworldtour.com

Live on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com

Organisers have blown the starting hooter for surfers in round two, heat seven of the Nova Schin Festival presented by Billabong in Brazil, with the intention of completing as many as 20 heats today. This will take the event to heat 10 of round three.

All going to plan this will mean that the highly anticipated heats including Kelly Slater (USA) (heat eight, round three) and Andy Irons (HAW) (heat nine, round three) will hit the water around 5pm this afternoon. Their opposition in those heats has yet to be decided.[/i]Competitors in the 10th event on the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour will have to face smallish onshore conditions, but there is enough push in the swell to allow the surfers to execute some satisfactory turns.

In shock new received last night, Fabio Gouveia has withdrawn from the event due to injury. Gouveia is one of Brazil’s favourite surfing sons who was a former quality competitor on the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour. He was due to surf in heat 11 of round two against Darren O’Rafferty (AUS).

Organisers are aiming to complete the event around lunchtime on Wednesday 9 November, which is the last day of the waiting period. This obviously could change depending on the wave conditions.

The remaining heats of round two include:

Heat 7: Peterson Rosa (BRA) vs Diego Rosa (BRA)
Heat 8: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) vs Yuri Sodre (BRA)
Heat 9: Taylor Knox (BRA) vs Pedro Henrique (BRA)
Heat 10: Paulo Moura (BRA) vs Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 11: Darren O’Rafferty (AUS) receives a walk through
Heat 12: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs Bernado Pigmeu (BRA)
Heat 13: Michael Lowe (AUS) vs Guilherme Herdy (BRA)
Heat 14: Chris Ward (USA) vs Renan Rocha (BRA)
Heat 15: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 16: Tim Reyes (USA) vs Luke Stedman (AUS)

Stay tuned to all the action on www.aspworldtour.com or www.billabongpro.com