Lay Day at SEAT Pro Netanya pres. by Billabong

Surfers Warm Up in Netanya

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Fun little waves in Netanya provide the perfect canvas for surfers to warm up before a new swell arrives.

Surfers from all-over the world converged to the coastal town of Netanya for the inaugural SEAT Pro Netanya pres. by Billabong. With only small one-to-two foot surf on offer to launch the event's waiting period, competition has been called OFF for the day.

However, the punchy little peaks up and down the pristine Kontiki beach allowed the AirMerrick & GoPro Freestyle Session to start and run fun heats of aerials and progressive maneuvers from both international surfers and local Israelis alike.

Tel Aviv's Yoni Klein, shared the lineup with international competitors and demonstrated his skills in the clean little waves on offer. The Israeli surfer will battle it up with some of the best European surfers when competition begins.

"It's a beautiful day, clear skies and beautiful Mediterranean colors, waves are small but definitely surfable and looking at the forecast I think we'll have good waves for this event," Klein said. "Having a QS event here is an awesome opportunity, it's a huge production, there are a lot of people watching from the beach and I'm extremely proud to be representing my country in the water. I think the level of the international competitors is going to be challenging for us local surfers but we'll give it 100% and try to make a few heats."

The AirMerrick & GoPro Freestyle Session was called off following the second semifinal and will crown its winner and award the US$1,000 check and a GoPro to the lucky winner later in the event's waiting period.

Due to an absence of swell on Sunday, surfers and event officials will reconvene on Monday for a potential start of the main competition.

Surfline, official forecasters for the event, are calling for:

Fading WNW swell on Saturday drops through the day and the surf is minimal on Sunday. Solid increase in windswell on Monday and into Tuesday with strong onshore winds. Fading surf with easing local winds allow conditions to improve for mid/late week.