- WSL / Pierre Tostee

Absorbing all the positive energy in the air, former WSL World Longboard Champion Steven Sawyer raised the level of performance at the eThekwini Surf Pro in the first LQS 1,000 Men's Quarterfinal heat of the day.

Sawyer exuded style and poise, effortlessly gliding across his board to spend some quality time on the nose. The Jeffreys Bay local went near-perfect in Durban, scoring a 9.00 and 9.93 for an excellent heat total of 18.93 , dispatching Cape Town's Mbuso Zozi.

"I'm stoked to get that first heat done and dusted, the waves were actually really nice," Sawyer said. "Conditions were amazing, even though sessions were a bit difficult with a little hole in the wave, but I was stoked to get those sets that linked all the way through to the inside."

Sawyer didn't seem to be jet lagged after flying to Durban straight after a trip in the Mentawais islands. "After four days of traveling I'm stoked to be here. My feet are a little bit cut up from the Mentawais reefs, so getting those waves this morning felt great."

Durban's Oliver Packham and Sam Christianson relished the conditions at their homebreak to advance to the Semifinals along with Ballito local Guy Campbell.

With the Semifinals locked in, Finals Day on Sunday is set to be a a cracker.

The next call will be on Sunday, 9 June at 7:30 AM for a possible 8:30 AM start local time.

Finals Day will be streamed live on worldsurfleague.com, the WSL YouTube and WSL free app.

The eThekwini Surf Pro is supported by eThekwini Municipality, Durban Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Surfing Association and Surfing South Africa.

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