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John Florence, round three throw, Portugal

“Oh, the joys of being a contest director,” muses Ryan Miller, after a day standing on the beach in Peniche, waiting to see how the Rip Curl Pro would play out. With a huge swell missing the contest site and a forecast worth um-ing and ah-ing over, event director Damien Hardman was torn. “No one ever says thank you, and all you hear is everyone gripe,” continues Miller. “Today there was a lot of debate going on at the comp site. Half the guys shrugged and said “I don’t care,” while the other half were not excited at all. With stormy conditions forecast, the contest organisers were eager to run a few heats today. I think about halfway between John John’s heat (pictured here), they realised running the comp was a bad call. Two heats ran in subpar conditions before the comp got called off.”

Those two heats saw John beat Travis Logie, and Gabriel Medina beat Brett Simpson. But the real action went down at the event back-up site, just after the call was made to finish for the day. “One third of the 34 was out having a blast in overhead, punchy surf,” says Miller. “Plenty of waves ridden and plenty of opportunity. Oh, hindsight is 20/20.”

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) 10.17 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 7.70
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.66 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 7.60

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Yadin Nicol (AUS)

Photographer profile

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller, 33 years old, does not know how to write a bad email. Your pals at Stab have learnt to live vicariously through Miller’s red wine-fuelled letters from the road. His travels take him to some dreamy locales and, in those places, he scores all-time photos: “My favourite photo I’ve shot was of Benny Bourgeois in the Caribbean, with a fisheye. Often I just take photos, but rarely do I get to make one.” In an age of tail-highs and released fins, Ryan still most likes to shoot someone who can lay-down a big backside turn. Namely: Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds, Gabe Kling, Kekoa Bacalso, Damien Hobgood and Peter Mendia. Like most photogs, Miller misses Scott Aichner’s work. But, as far as contemporary inspiration? “Trying to see things through my daughter’s eyes. It’s wild to think about someone experiencing something totally new on almost a daily basis when, as adults, we rarely get to experience something truly new.”

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