La Graviere was mean for the start of round two at the Quiksilver Pro, France. Vicious, even. The shorebreak we’ve been watching for the first coupla days moved a little further out, got a lot bigger, and got even more powerful.
“It was definitely scary (surfing round two, not the conditions),” said John Florence, who beat fellow Hawaiian Dusty Payne. “Just going into Round two is scary, and coming up against Dusty in waves like this, big barrels, I was pretty nervous throughout the whole heat cause all he needed was a seven and he could get that in his sleep. It’s really hard to tell which ones are good. I kept pulling in and kept getting lipped on the head and stuff.”
Kolohe Andino’s post-heat Red Bull tasted a little sweeter today, after winning his first heat back since injury. He beat Josh Kerr, who Brother says is “one of the best guys out here in these conditions, so I just had a plan to go out and hunt good tubes because I was certain he would get some. I took some beatings out there. It’s super gnarly, but I managed to get a pretty clean right and come out while Josh struggled to find a rhythm. Pumped to get through a heat again and hope I can just keep going.”
Julian Wilson clocked the second 10 of the event so far, after burning through a very deep right barrel. “The 10 felt really good,” Julian said. “I spent the first quarter of that heat getting smashed. I got smashed on my first wave and then probably got smashed by fifteen more trying to go back out. As soon as that rip kind of cleared out of the line-up we saw some really good waves come through and yeah I was really happy to get that first one, get that 10 and then it up. Melling caught a couple too, he just was unlucky and fell off but it was cool to surf a heat like that coming to France. It’s so much fun.”
Check in again in a few hours to see if the rest of round two wraps.
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.27 def. Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 2.66
Heat 2: John John Florence (HAW) 15.00 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 8.40
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) 16.80 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.44
Heat 4: Kolohe Andino (USA) 9.10 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 4.90
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.50 def. Yadin Nicol (AUS) 12.00
Heat 6: Owen Wright (AUS) 16.76 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.90
Heat 7: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.77 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 4.30
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 8: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 9: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 10: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Heat 11: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 12: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
