Main Break, Margaret River, Western Australia – The final day of the Boost Mobile Margaret River Pro presented by Corona was a good day for South African surfing, with two of our surfers making it through to the final four in the men’s division.
Matt McGillivray is competing in his rookie year on the World Surf League’s (WSL) Championship Tour (CT). His third-place finish was his best result so far on this tour. After poor results in the first two of the four-stage Australian leg of the tour, this result has seen him shoot up to 16th place on the CT tour rankings.
Matt defeated Japanese surfer Kanoa Igarashi in the round of 16 before beating Hawaiian surfer Seth Moniz comfortably in the quarterfinals. Matt came up against eventual contest winner Filipe Toledo from Brazil in the semi-final. He bowed out in what was a close heat.
Jordy Smith went one step further than Matt and made it to the finals. He was eventually defeated by Toledo. Jordy has had a good run in Australia thus far. He scored decent results in both the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup and the Rip Curl Narrabeen Classic and finds himself rated 5th on the tour rankings.
Matt, from JBay, always ups the ante when the waves are big and powerful. This is no doubt from all of his training at Supertubes over the years. In fact, the Rip Curl team member qualified for his rookie year on the Championship Tour on the back of an excellent result in big surf at Sunset Beach in Hawaii. To qualify, Matt needed to get beyond round 3 in the massive waves on offer at the Vans World Cup 2019. Matt surfed his way through to the quarterfinals, emphatically gaining his spot on the premier tour.
The next event is the Rip Curl Rottnest Search event. Both the South African surfers will have another chance to increase their points tally and continue to move up those rankings. On a world tour that has been plagued by constant unknowns, it has been a positive in world surfing to see a brand like Rip Curl step up to the plate and sponsor three of the events in Australia.
Rip Curl is also the sponsor of the final event of the year. The Rip Curl WSL Finals will take place at Lower Trestles in California in November.
Video: Surfer Matt McGillivray’s Third Place Finish At Margaret River Is Career Best
More Info on Surfer Matt McGillivray’s Third Place Finish At Margaret River Is Career Best here: https://gangbusters.co.za/
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