The remnants of the Hurricane Linda swell is leaving Trestles still in the head high range with warm waters and the Hurley Pro raged on for another full day.
As the field of surfers was narrowed down to the final 12, upsets ensued and the surfing just got better. The first heat of Round 3 took a turn for the worst for World No. 4 Julian Wilson when he was taken out by goofy-footer Miguel Pupo.
Pupo and Wilson adopted two vastly different techniques as far as wave selection and positioning. While Wilson sat outside most of the heat waiting patiently for a set wave, Pupo stayed busy on the inside, improving his last score each time.
With five minutes left on the clock, Wilson found himself in a combo situation with a total heat score of 3.07.
Then, two minutes later, Wilson scrapped into his best wave. Racing down a solid right, he pumped into a floater and then another one before the wave got away from him. Earning a 2.93, he was no longer combo’d, but this ain’t Chopes folks–it takes a few minutes to get back out in the lineup. Wilson would hit the cobblestones already looking towards Europe.
The next heat was an all-out goofy-foot fist fight between Italo Ferreira and Matt Wilkinson. Going wave for wave, these two surfers were giving it all they had to give, throwing huge backside reverses and pushing the tail farther and farther each time. Even at the 15 minute mark these two were tied, each having a 14.17 heat total. Wilkinson was the first to break the combo, working a medium-sized wave to death and throwing a psyched up claim at the end, he earned a 6.50 and the lead.
Wilkinson continued to pick off waves under Ferreira’s priority and even bettered his 6.50 with a 7.27, finding a perfect little ramp to finish off an inside wave strong with a perfect backside air reverse.
With 30 seconds left on the clock, Ferreira showed he was having fun, sticking a pop-shuvit on a small inside wave as he waited for his last score to drop. Needing a 6.60, Ferreira had one chance and he surfed conservatively, not trying too hard or looking for something big, just surfing the wave to shreds with nice smooth turns. As the beach announcer started his countdown, Ferreira heard his score, a 6.63. He took out Wilkinson with just a 0.03 lead, in the closest heat of the contest.
Filipe Toledo must have been amped up watching that heat, because he seemed to be back to his confident, high-flying self, taking out Michel Bourez with ease.
Toledo found his best wave in the back half of the heat. Dropping in way inside of Bourez, he pumped like mad to get the speed for a full 540 air. Landing perfectly in the pocket he bottom turned into a massive carve back to the foamball. With another huge turn and throwing the fins free to finish, the judges loved it, scoring it a 9.77.
Josh Kerr pulled off his signature Kerrupt flip in his heat against Joel Parkinson, earning an 8.00. It wasn’t even close enough to beat Parkinson’s 8.93 and 9.70 wave scores and Kerr was left combo’d.
In the last three heats of the day, the biggest upset came in Heat 9 with Adrian “Ace” Buchan taking down Jeremy Flores. Flores had been runner-up to Toledo in the Oakley Lowers Pro WQS 10,000 event earlier this year, and after his win in Tahiti showing he was fully back from his head, he was definitely a favorite to make the finals. But that all came crashing down as Ace out-surfed him and kept the goofy-foot domination alive.
Flores only dropped in on four waves, Ace only three and in the end it was a flawless 8.50 backhand performance that put Buchan in front.
Kelly Slater and Gabriel Medina finished off Round 3 both earning 16.50 heat totals and advancing to Round 4 over Adam Melling and Bede Durbdge.
Owen Wright was the lucky surfer who got the Round 3 walk through after being re-seeded against the now retired Fred Patacchia Jr.
