The second day of competition of the Essential Costa Rica Open Pro 3000 at Esterillos Este beach in Parrita, Puntarenas, came to an end, and out of the starting 224 competitors there’s only 96 left (64 men, and 32 women).

The level of competition is high, today after round 3 concluded, 4 male Costa Rican athletes continue in competition: Jason Torres, Noe Mar McGonagle, Jair Pérez and Cali Muñoz and the same number of national female participants: Leilani McGonagle, Emily Gussoni, Coral Wiggins and Lisbeth Vindas.

Some of the best scores today in the male competition came from U.S.A. surfers: Nolan Rapoza with a 14.6 in heat 3, Taylor Clark 14.14 in heat 13, Matt Passaquindici who earned 13.10 points in heat 5, Shaun Burns 13.77 in heat 6 and Kevin Schulz 11.47 in heat 14. Other athletes who qualified first in their heats include: from France Charly Quivront with 15.86, Paul Cesar Distinguin 12.3 and Nomme Mignot with 12.07; Brazilian Alan Donato 13.17, Mexican Dylan Southworth 12.67, Francisco Bellorin from Venezuela who scored 14.4 and Chilean Guillermo Satt 13.36.

Alonso Correa from Peru surfed the best wave of the day that earned him 8.93 points, in his first wave he was only able to get 5.17 points so getting that great score came at the right time for Correa who classified in second place of a very tough heat which was won by Charly Quivront.

Tomorrow the event resumes at 7 a.m. with the fourth round male heats and second round female heats.

If you can’t make it out to Esterillos you can still follow the event LIVE at World Surf League’s website.

Unexpected visitors at Esterillos

During the first day of competition an Australian surfer reportedly saw a crocodile in the area, this caused a delay of 15 minutes while jet skis patrolled the area searching for the reptile but they were not able to find it, to ensure the safety of the participants the event organizers continue to monitor the area using the jet skis, in the event that a crocodile is spotted they already have a protocol in place to scare the animal off and guarantee everyone’s security.

The Qualifying Series Essential Costa Rica Pro Open 3000 is one of the stops of the World Surf League and will give out $130,000.00 in prizes and 3000 points.