The European leg of the tour is the best part of the year. It’s generally thought of as the favorite amongst competitors, the title race is in full force, and the surfers at the bottom are fighting harder than ever to earn their spot next year.
This all adds up for a spectacular show of high performance surfing, no matter what the conditions may be, so nobody complained when small surf and onshore winds served up struggling surf for the world’s best.
Locals Tackle Title Contenders
With the results in France putting Mick Fanning only 450 points ahead of Adriano de Souza, all the pressure fell on the Brazilian.
Also sharing the pressure was world number three Owen Wright, who is mathematically in the hunt for the top spot as well, and looking to better his personal best overall ‘CT result, 3rd in 2015 and 2011.
Neither surfer looked out of sorts as they took to the Portuguese beach break against the local wildcards Vasco Ribeiro and Frederico Morais. But Wright and De Souza both had their work cut out for them in their respective heats as the white jerseys took command of the line-up early.
Wright stayed busy in heat four, chasing Ribeiro’s comfortable lead, trading mediocre scores with Michel Bourez. In the end, he traded a pair of threes for a pair of fives for a heat total of 11.07, narrowly losing to Ribeiro by one point.
Heat five started with a split peak situation, Adriano de Souza going right and Frederico Morais going left. Morais, on his backhand, took the lead in the two turn exchange, besting De Souza’s 5.17 with a 6.67. The battle continued, each headed the opposite direction as before (Morais on his forehand and De Souza on his backhand) and this time De Souza won the exchange, a 7.60 over Morais’ 7.00.
The heat’s third surfer, Kolohe Andino decided to throw his skills into the mix around the halfway mark, posting a barrel-to-two turn combination, earning his own 7.60.
But it was too late, as Andino and De Souza scrounged for second best, Morais put the nail in the coffin posting a 9.43 with three flawless backside turns in the pocket.
Andino and De Souza are headed to round two, both posting identical heat totals of 16.27, just 0.16 behind Morais. What a heat it was!
Mick Fanning was fired up, and after seeing De Souza go down, he dominated his heat. Opening with the lead and holding it through to the buzzer, the yellow jersey seemed to settle Fanning’s nerves instead of pressure him.
Fanning knows De Souza has battled through round two plenty of times before this season and will not see this as a sign of relief, although he can breathe easier watching confidently as he rests on the beach.
Other Top Performances of Round 1
Filipe Toledo started the morning throwing a full rotation air reverse right back into the pocket and finishing with a full fins-out slash. The judges immediately put it into the excellent range, and he won the heat locking in his best score of 8.17.
Medina saw Toledo’s air and agreed with the strategy, throwing a clean backside air reverse, almost identical to his perfect 10 in France, but on a much smaller scale. It earned him a 7.50 and the heat win over Miguel Pupo and Mason Ho.
Heat eight continued the aerial assault with Brett Simpson and Italo Ferreira trading 8.00 rides above the lip. But Joel Parkinson showed the crowd it’s not all about the airs as he posted a 9.50, with a barrel to cutback combo. Simpson made his comeback in similar fashion, earning an 8.13 after snagging a barrel of his own and the win.
Matt Wilkinson had a buzzer-beater win against Jeremy Flores and Ricardo Christie in heat nine. Finding a ramp on one of the lefts with 15 seconds to go, he hucked a frontside air reverse, throwing a grab and his wild Wilko style into it to earn a 7.63 for the win.
In the last heat of the day, Josh Kerr reminded everybody what aerial surfing is all about. Going for broke, Kerr took to the air popping a frontside air and leaning back grabbing his heelside rail with his back hand, firmly holding the “stalefish” grab all the way through his rotation with so much style and stomping the landing.
The judges love the technicality of it and awarded Kerrzy with the highest score of the day, a 9.70.
In his post-heat interview, Kerr said that it had become too much about how fast surfers rotate, not about the style and the different grabs that make airs unique and progressive in the first place.
