The call came early on the third day of competition. By 7:40 am, Julian Wilson and CJ Hobgood were sitting out in the lineup with jerseys on. The building swell had everyone frothing and anxious–and after six hours of surfing, the competition finally defined what we all think when we hear that cliché, “The world’s best surfers in the world’s best waves.”
Throughout the day, there were seven 9-point rides and nine 8-point rides. In fact, only two heats out of the 13 that ran had scores that didn’t reach the excellent range. The day’s highlight reel could probably fill a whole 35 minute heat slot.
The first bomb came from Wilson as he battled for the Round 2 win against Hobgood. The Aussie needed at least a 7.24 with two minutes on the clock. As he dropped into a huge set wave, bottom turning right into the pit, he grabbed some solid tube time before wrapping back into the pocket to set up for another throaty barrel on the inside the shish kabob section.
After swapping the lead a few times with the 20-year Fiji vet, Wilson secured the win with that wave, receiving a 9.50 from the judges.
In his post-heat interview, Hobgood was all smiles after telling Todd Kline, “I deserved to lose that heat.” Although he has yet to win a Round 2 heat this year, you can never count Hobgood out with his optimistic attitude and definitive surfing style.
The last half of Round 2 pushed on in perfect 6-8 foot Cloudbreak, and Heat 11 became a full on grudge match between the dark horse Jeremy Flores and the rookie Ricardo Christie.
With six huge snaps off the lip, grabbing his rail on each bottom turn, using every ounce of power the wave offered, Flores took the lead from Christie early on, scoring a 9.27 . He then flaunted his backside barrel skills, getting spit out the tube and grabbing an 8.43.
After racking up tube time back and forth, Christie needed a 9.80 and went down fighting, earning the highest wave score of the heat with a 9.57.
Continuing straight into Round 3, Taj Burrow grabbed an easy win over Keanu Asing and Wilson was back at it again taking out Kolohe Andino for the first time in their Fiji Pro match ups.
Heat 3 was another great match up with Kelly Slater surfing against Fredrick Patacchia Jr. and in true Slater fashion, he pulled off a 9.90 snagging the highest wave score of the day.
But the bigger story in the heat was his 8.67. Freddy P, with priority, gave the first wave of a set to Slater. After a snap off the top, he pulled into a barrel and made a section that only he could have made.
I watched the replay from all angles, and even though Freddy P. made the priority mistake, neither he nor any other surfer other than Slater would have made it over that foam ball.
Upsets end the day
The next heat was an all-goofy battle between 2014 Fiji Pro Runner-up and current World No. 5 Nat Young and the Brazilian Rookie Wiggolly Dantas. The aggressive Brazilian played some head games trying to cause Young to get an interference call early.
While paddling from out the back with priority, instead of staying directed towards the peak, Dantas turned toward Young who was taking a look on the inside. Basically paddling onto the back of Young, Dantas pulled out at the last second leaving the judging tower to think over his risky strategy.
Ultimately, Young kept both his wave scores, but it still wasn’t enough to beat Dantas, who grabbed an 8.43 and then a 6.93 within the last six minutes to secure the win with a quick one-two knockout.
In the last heat of the day, another surfer in a blue jersey, this time Wildcard Dane Reynolds, took out world No. 1 Adriano de Souza. Continuing with the rhythm he found in day 2two, Reynolds dominated the heat. De Souza played the patient game, but in the end he was too patient, losing by five points and failing to score anything higher than a 7.00.
If Day 4 is anything like Day 3, you will not want to miss the rest of this event.
