GIANTS DUEL IN THE FINAL – MAC DONALD WINS AT ERICEIRA
Buondi Billabong Pro Portugal – WQS 6*

Sixteen world top surfers tried to reach the final, today. The eights and the quarters were at Ribeira d’Ilhas, and both the semi-finals and final were at Pedra Branca, a wave near Ribeira d’Ilhas, due to sea conditions at the time.

The heats were balanced during this last day, so it was essential to the surfers to use a high technique and lot of know-how to manage both priorities and waves.

Patrick Gudauskas, from United States, went on to the semi-final with the Brazilian surfer Heitor Alves. The American caught the best waves ‘till the end, leaving Heitor in second place, besides his great
performance.

In the second semi-final, Phillip MacDonald and the Basque Eneko Acero chose “Sanguessuga”, a dangerous Bodyboard wave that has really low depth. Both semi-finalists surfed very well, catching the waves until the rocks, although the winner was MacDonald.

The duel between the finalists was very intense but the winner of this 6 star Buondi Billabong Pro Portugal 2008 was the Australian Phillip McDonald, who said: “the technique must always be with the surfer, despite the waves size. Along one must be focused and lucky to find the best waves. And so I did!
Climbing up heat by heat has been the best this contest has provided me, and I am really thrilled to win!” So Phill Mac Donald got to be the first surfer to win the new trophy Sea Urchin, specially designed for this event. He also marked his passing through Ericeira as his footsteps will stay here forever, in
cement.

António Pedro, manager from Alfarroba, and contest director summarizes: “This was a very difficult contest, specially these last days, due to sea conditions. For that reason, we have changed the contest locations every afternoon to Pedra Branca in order to find the best conditions possible. However, the best thing to underline is the high surfing level this beach has ttended for this six days, with the performances of some of the world top surfers.”