Saturday dawned cold and rainy on the northern coast of Spain. The first stop of the Super Liga Siroko 2018 brought together the entire Spanish armada on Berria beach in Cantabria.

This national level circuit has won over surfers with its good prizes and powerful organisation, and this first stage was a date that all surfers had marked on their calendars.

The waves broke a solid meter but were quite close, which made life quite complicated for the athletes.

The first round of men's competition progressed with few surprises. Names like Iker Amatriain, Pablo Gutierrez, Ruben Vitoria, Ander Ugarte and Roberto Letamendía got down to work and made their way to round 2. The difficult conditions in the first hour played a bad trick on the Galician and already habitual QS fighter Pablo Montero who did not find the 5,75 he needed to advance in a heat dominated by Roberto Damico and Nacho Sebastia.

It was getting clearer and the sun started to shine. The tide was rising, which allowed us to withstand the constant crosswind that blew throughout the afternoon a little better, offering longer waves with a good wall, although still few.

In round 2, with 7 minutes to go, an experienced Pablo Gutierrez sat comfortably in first position with two good waves (7,40 and 6,83). Ethan Egiguren was fourth and needed a 6,05 to advance to the coveted round 3. The score was not demanding but finding a wave with potential was difficult. One eye on the opponents, another on the clock and that wave that did not appear. With the paddle of the five minutes of discount turned, a series of several waves came in and, pulling cold blood, Egiguren let the first two waves pass and went all in on the third.

A very strong and vertical turn, followed by two more in the middle of the section and ending with a  again with more force and at twelve he gave 9,33, the highest score of the day.

“It is difficult because there is a lot of wind,” said Egiguren after his feat after advancing to the quarterfinals. “I chose the spot well, I had the intention of going for the right hand but I saw that the left hand had potential and the truth is that I have picked up the rhythm.”

Among the ladies, the young Nadia Erostarbe had the best score of the day, adding 11,4 to beat Leticia Canales and Inés García. Violeta Sánchez, Angela Ayesa and Iara Domínguez also stood out.

The wind continued to be strong for the end of round 3, but as Hodei Collazo mentioned after finishing first in his heat, it made it a bit more fun as the waves began to have more sections to squeeze out scores. Local Pablo Gutiérrez once again demonstrated the value of experience and kept up with his battle partner Collazo, placing second and leaving young Julen Egiguren out with a final wave over the bell.

It was in this third round that three of the surfers who had shown the best surfing in the morning and so far this season faced each other: Andy Criere, Ethan Egiguren and Vicente Romero. Criere and Eguiguren were the next to go.

The quarters were determined as follows:
Roberto Damico vs Andy Criere
Jatyr Berasaluce vs Ethan Eguiguren
Hodei Collazo vs Juanjo Fernández
Kalani da Silva vs Pablo Gutierrez