Australia’s Tully White buzzer beater earns women’s top heat total; Spain’s Nicolas Garcia earns day-high heat total, but is eliminated in his second heat
Kevin Skvarna falls in repechage delivering early elimination for USA
Surf City El Salvador – April 22, 2024
A complete day of repechage rounds whittled down the record number of competitors at the 2024 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Longboard Championship. The elimination rounds created a newfound tension and pressure that brought out timely performances from the competitors, surfing to stay alive in the competition.
Forty-eight surfers were eliminated through the Men’s and Women’s Repechage Rounds 1 and 2.
The top performance of day 3 went to Spain’s Nicolas Garcia, notching 16.5 points in Repechage Round 1. However, Garcia couldn’t keep the momentum going and was subsequently eliminated by England’s Ben Howey and Chile’s Rafael Cortez in his second repechage heat of the day.
Mexico’s Jonathan Melendres (15.27) and Colombia’s Nicolas Ayala (14.9) put on strong showings with high wave scores in the excellent range. Melendres was able to back up his performance and advance through another round of repechage, while Ayala, unfortunately, was taken down in his second heat.
USA’s medal aspirations took a serious hit as the 2018 Copper Medalist Kevin Skvarna was eliminated in Men’s Repechage Round 2. Skvarna was unable to find a second scoring wave and was subsequently eliminated by Chinese Taipei’s Yuan Cheng-Chih and Costa Rica’s Dorian Torres.