Monday July 5, 2010 - Spectators at Ballito's Surfers Beach were given a small taste of this year's competition with just three heats of surfing completed at the 5 Star Mr Price Pro Ballito today.

After a spectacular start to the morning that saw light offshores and a contestable 1-meter swell on offer, Mother Nature wrecked havoc with conditions, a fresh North Easterly quickly turning the line-up into a disorderly state.

"It's tougher than it looks out there," World No. 2 Jordy Smith (Dbn) said after capturing the first of the day's heat victories. "It's hard to find the right waves that will give you the right scores."

Renowned for his consistently excellent scores, Smith secured the lead off a pair of four point rides (out of ten). With fifteen second on the clock Smith stroked into a reeling right hander performing a series of off-the- tops and finishing off with a massive air reverse manoeuvre to earn the highest wave score of the day, an 8.83 (out of ten).

Smith defeated Ryan Balfour (Ballito), the pair eliminating junior surfers Jacob Mellish (CT) and Jean Du Plessis (El) from the event.

"My strategy is to take it one wave and one heat at a time at this event," Smith said. "I'm just going out there to enjoy myself and have fun surfing with my friends."

Daniel Redman (Umloti) revealed his nose for hollow waves, dropping into a clean barrel off the hooter to post a great 7.00 (out of ten). Following up with his second consecutive 7.00 ride, the 9th year ASP Star Tour campaigner solidified his victory over Quintin Jones (CT), the pair edging out Craig Johnson (Dbn) and Gregory Weatherall (NZ).

ASP Africa Pro Junior ratings leader Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay) captured the final victory of the day, narrowly advancing in first place over Gary Van Wierengen (Warner Beach) to with the heat with just a 9.20 (out of a possible 20.00).

"I saw the wind come up as soon as I paddled out and I knew it was going to be tough," Joubert said. "You couldn't really tell which ones would be good so I just tried to catch a couple of waves and surf my hardest and I guess it worked."

Van Wierengen made a last minute come back, the 2009 ASP Africa Champion jumping from 4th into second in the last 15 seconds of the heat, scoring a 5.27 (out of ten), just enough to advance over Slade Prestwich and Marcus Theron.

"I had to get busy at the end there," Van Wierengen said. "It was very shifty with the current moving around so it was hard to find the right one. I found myself in a slump but managed to come back so I am stoked."

With surfer's scores failing to reflect their true capabilities due to the poor conditions, event officials were forced to call the competition off for the day.

The next call will be at 07H00 on Tuesday July 6, 2010.

Tune in to East Coast Radio for live updates on the Mr Price Pro each day and if you can't make it down to the beach you can watch all the action live on the webcast at www.mrpricepro.com.