SEAT Pro Netanya Brings Back Professional Surfing to Israel

SEAT Pro Netanya Highlights: Comp Gets Underway in Israel

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The QS3,000 SEAT Pro Netanya gets underway with the opening eight heats of men's action in Netanya.

The Seat Pro Netanya, Stop No. 3 of 5 on the 2021-22 World Surf League (WSL) European Qualifying Series (QS), launched today in wind-affected two-to-three foot surf on the opening day of the event's waiting period.

It's the fifth time this event is running, and after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, surfers were stoked to be back in Israel for the event. A strong field of 88 Men and 36 Women will take part in this QS3,000 event. The goal is to gather as many ranking points as possible before the last two stops on the series, to qualify for the Challenger Series later this year.

The event boasts a prestigious list of past winners and standouts with the likes of Matthew McGillivray, Eithan Osborne, Peterson Crisanto, Jorgann Couzinet and more shining bright in Netanya in previous editions.

Today for the opening day of competition, event officials seized an opportunity to run the first round and half of the second round of the men's competition. The swell built throughout the day and while conditions were far from picture-perfect, there were plenty of opportunities and surfers made sure to capitalize.

Eyal Torgeman - WSL / Laurent Masurel

Brazil's Edgard Groggia and Timothee Bisso were the clear standouts in the mushy surf, posting 17.24 and 14.50 heat totals respectively in their first heat, and confirming with another strong showing in the second round.

"Waves were definitely a bit tricky today," Bisso admitted. "But if you're not staying still and instead try to scour around for peaks you'll find opportunities. There are two options, the reform and out the back, I took one of each and got a couple good scores so I'm happy with a start like this. It was a bit of a last-minute decision to come here but I'm happy to be back."

"It was a dream of mine to come here," Groggia explained. "I spoke with Miguel Pupo and Peterson Crisanto before and they only had good things to say about this place so I decided to come with my friend Alex Ribeiro. I'm stoked to be here, I had no idea of my scores in the water because with the strong wind I couldn't hear, but it's great to get big numbers right away."

The forecast for the event's waiting period is looking a little difficult early on, which explains the need to get heats in the water right on day 1. With conditions potentially improving tomorrow, event officials will reconvene at 7 a.m IST, tomorrow, Wednesday, March 16, 2022 for the next call.

Watch LIVE Scoring and All Results
The holding period for the SEAT Pro Netanya runs from March 15-27, 2022. You can watch LIVE scoring of every heat at worldsurfleague.com and on the free WSL app.

COVID-19 Updates
The health and safety of our athletes, staff, and the local community are of the utmost importance and we have been working closely with local authorities to put a robust set of procedures in place to keep everyone safe. This includes pre-event screening, testing protocols, and minimal personnel on site. In accordance with local and national guidelines, on-site masks and physical distance are required.

The SEAT Pro Netanya is hosted by Israel Surfing Association (ISA) and the City of Netanya and supported by SEAT, Tshuva, Briga, Dan Markovitz, the Australian Embassy, Macabi Israel, Buchan Real Estate, Intercure and Quiksilver among others.