Day three at the Moche Ripcurl Pro, Portugal

How refreshing was today’s action compared to the past few days of lackluster? The surf shaped up, and towards the end of the day we were finally seeing some proper supertubo’s tunnels. The heats were exciting, the underdogs prevailed and the world’s best have almost all been eliminated from competition. First off, let’s talk about Simpo. He came out in round three and eliminated the King. Slater took an early exit from competition and Brett’s on his way to his best finish of the season. “I wanted to make sure I got a decent start and tried not to let Kelly do his thing,” Brett told the WSL. “Fortunately with two decent rides and priority I was able to control the heat. I don’t do that enough, that was a more strategic win. It’s a big heat, beating Slater and going into Round 4. It’s been a struggle, but I keep surfing and having fun. The surf stoke is there.” Now let’s chat the Portuguese wildcards. Fuck, they’ve come out swinging. Frederico Morais took out Mick after tearing a 9.13. The defending Portugal Pro champ couldn’t find form. He fell on his first wave and was unable string together the points to advance. Then Vasco Ribeiro took down the world number two Mr Adriano de Souza. The battle for the title is now in the hands of the Pipe Masters, isn’t it just lovely when that happens? The high-flying Brazilians; Gabs and Filipe were cranking rotations in quintessential Brazilian fashion, Gabs just claimed a little harder. In the last leg of Europe Gabs is finding form and’s surfing better than anyone in competition. This event may just come down to an air show featuring Filipe and Gabs. Caio Ibelli, who we will most likely be seeing on the CT in 2016 put up a solid fight vs Gabriel. After trailing for the majority of the heat Caio slipped into a tunnel and landed himself a 9.77. It seemed another huge upset was about to take place until Gabs punted a huge rotation to the flats for a 9.50 in the final minutes. And with that Mr Medina took the win. Round four heat one was the best we’ve seen in this event thus far. The waves really turned on and Filipe, Kolohe and Simpo had a good ole fashion battle royale. Brother found himself some shade for a perfect ten, but it wasn’t enough to beat Filipe who threw up two scores well into the excellent range for a total heat score of 19.00. Two heats of round two were completed and we will see the remainder of the event unfold with unexpected players. Everyone loves a cinderella story. Round 4 results:Heat 1: F. Toledo 19.00, K. Andino 18.00, B. Simpson 17.57Heat 2: F. Morais 14.96, N. Young 14.50, J. Parkinson 7.43 Round 4 upcoming:Heat 3: V. Ribeiro, K. Asing, J. FloresHeat 4: I. Ferreira, M. Bourez, G. Medina Round 3 results:Heat 1: F. Toledo 14.70, M. Ho 2.76Heat 2: K. Andino 13.06, B. Durbidge 10.43Heat 3: B. Simpson 13.54, K. Slater 8.06Heat 4: N. Young 16.67, S. Zietz 13.17Heat 5: J. Parkinson 15.00, M. Wilkinson 14.60Heat 6: F. Morais 16.03, M. Fanning 14.40Heat 7: V. Ribeiro 14.36, A. de Souza 11.80Heat 8: K. Asing 13.43, J. Florence 13.16Heat 9: J. Flores 17.26, C. Hobgood 12.47Heat 10: I. Ferreira 14.17, R. Christie 12.84Heat 11: M. Bourez 13.17, J. Kerr 13.10Heat 12: G. Medina 17.67, C. Ibelli 15.87