Day Two at the Fiji Pro was short and sweet, with only five heats taking to the water. Excitement oozed from the booth as WSL Commisioner Kieren Perrow called for competition to start in solid eight-foot surf at 8 a.m. Fiji time. Throughout four heats, the surfing community saw contestable conditions, but as the fifth heat pushed on, the wind became too much for Cloudbreak to handle. Perrow was forced to call off competition for the day knowing the swell is only supposed to get better. Needless to say, the first five heats of Round Two saw some of the best in the world duking it out against the unsung heroes of the wildcard draw.
Toledo barely squeaks by
After the 2015 world rankings leader, Adriano de Souza, easily took out local wildcard, Inia Nakalevu, in the first heat of Round Two, it looked like the top seeds would be back in form for the coming day of competition. But when World #2 Filipe Toledo, paddled out against local wildcard and Tavarua’s chief’s son, Aca Ravulo, all bets were off as Ravulo found barrel after barrel to keep Toledo on his toes.
At the end of the heat, Toledo came out on top with a 5.50 and 5.20 scores to narrowly beat out the Fijian by only 1.84. All the hype before this event was focused on Toledo, questioning whether or not he had the rail game to compete at stops like Fiji, and Tahiti. So far, the answer is no.
Ravulo’s barrels were small, but they were long and in great positioning with a full body drag and nice cover. Receiving a 4.93 and a 3.93 just wasn’t enough to overtake Toledo, although he led the heat for the first 10 minutes. Toledo really didn’t show up until the last 30 seconds of the heat, scoring the 5.20 right at the buzzer to secure the win with some vertical backhand snaps on a nice overhead set wave, making sure to finish strong.
Slater and Reynolds steal the show
Wildcard Dane Reynolds was re-seeded against World #4, Josh Kerr, in Heat 3. He came out swinging with a 6.83, throwing the fins loose and showing the style that’s earned him the title of “best freesurfer in the world.” But that wasn’t all he had–at about the 10-minute mark Reynolds just destroyed an overhead wave with three huge turns to earn a 8.17 and eventually take the win. Kerr didn’t go down without a fight, finishing with a 14.10 to Reynolds’s 15.00. After his less-than-impressive appearance at the Quiksilver Pro, this was a huge win for Reynolds, and an even bigger upset for Kerr who will surely drop in the rankings with a 25th place finish.
In Heat 4, Kelly Slater put on a clinic, proving to be back in form as the most dominant surfer in Cloudbreak’s history. Slater finished with an 18.70 heat score, grabbing the highest wave score of the day with a 9.93 double barrel going about Mach 1 and leaving his opponent Jay Davies admitting that he “got smoked” in his post-heat interview.
That was after grabbing an 8.77 in the first five minutes of the heat with probably the cleanest barrel of the day.
After the flawless Slater performance we all expected, Owen Wright and Aritz Aranburu struggled in the last heat of the day, eventually getting the call off as Wright barely beat out Aranburu with a 1.07 lead.
The competition should be back on tomorrow with the rest of Round Two surfing in bigger and better waves, depending on the unpredictable winds funneling through the South Pacific and running right across the lovely heart shaped island of Tavarua.
