Eric Rebiere was among those that fell foul of the Chilean charge yesterday, as Satt, Hernandez and Selman surged through to the next round.

The excellent three-meter waves, considered perfect by many of the contestants, allowed for an incredible show today, with the Chileans dominating the ASP WQS 3-Star Rusty Arica Pro.

Ariquean Guillermo Satt showed during the first heat of the day the quality of the Chilean surfers. Although he broke his board halfway through the heat, the waves he had already surfed would give him enough points to overcome the Frenchman Eric Rebiere, third in the ASP European ranking and 66th in the ASP WQS, best-seeded surfer of the event.

“I got a really good tube then I wanted to secure another good wave and I entered a perfect one when a counter wave threw me off my feet onto my board, breaking it along the way,” Satt sai. “I spent the rest of the heat trying to get back in without success but ended winning the heat all the same.”

But without a doubt, the most applauded was the act put on display by Camilo Hernandez, the youngster from Iquique who went against Diego Naranjo from Costa Rica in the seventh heat. The key wave was an incredibly long tube that he finally exited that just drove the crowd crazy cheering for the local grommet.

“I’m really happy,” Hernandez said. “I’m only 15 and I’m surfing against some of the best of the world. It’s the first time I’ve compete in an ASP WQS event and I’m running against Diego Naranjo from Costa Rica. He’s a really good surfer and I just went to give it all I had. The first tube I tried just fell on me, but I made the second one perfectly and it was really long. That totally amped me up.”

Later on, Manuel Selman eliminated Diego Pagliardini from Argentina combining 14-points in the fifth heat.

The day wasn’t only for Chileans either. Peruvian Gabriel Villaran, impressed everyone, almost making a perfect wave scored 9.33. And before that, Jay Davies, the young promise from Australia, entered El Gringo and got the highest heat total of the day with 17.50 given by the judges for two incredible rides, the first being a double tube in Gringo’s right.

Roberto Perdigao, regional director of the ASP, found today to be a great day with a lot of tubes on display. He went on to say that the whole group has shown its qualities.

“The surfers have put up a great show in despite of the wave’s difficulty,” Perdigao said. “This is without doubt the way for Latin American surfers to develop their technical level. It was a memorable day”

Tomorrow will start with the two last match-ups of Round 2 since the contest was suspended when the wind started blowing the site. Martin Passeri from Argentina and Dylan Southworth from Mexico will face each other in tomorrow’s first heat followed by the last heat of Round 2 with Alvaro Bacana from Brazil and Cristobal Gonzalez from Chile.

The qualified surfers for tomorrow’s third round:
Guillermo Satt (Chile)
Jay Davies (Australia)
Pedro Fernandez (República Dominicana)
Gabriel Villaran (Perú)
Manuel Selman (Chile)
Carlos Goncalves (Ecuador)
Camilo Hernandez (Chile)
Juan Luis Pasoldan (Perú)
David Rutherford (México)
Javier Swayne (Perú)
Alvaro Malpartida (Perú)
Francisco Bellorin (Venezuela)
Raphael Becker (Brasil)
Jason Torres (Costa Rica)