Julian Wilson, heat-winning shuck, Gold Coast

“It’s the event that I look forward to the most, but I definitely feel the most pressure here,” said Julian Wilson after beating rookie Sebastian ‘Seabass’ Zietz yesterday, in round three of the Quiksilver Pro, Gold Coast. “Having my family here, this is the only event of the year my dad makes it to, and raising breast cancer awareness, I’ll always have that extra need to do really, really well here. It’s hard not to be distracted. This would be the sweetest victory for me, for sure. Hopefully this is the year I’ll do it, I’ve never had the result I’ve wanted here. I grew up surfing these waves, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be getting a better result.” Jules got a little lost at the start of the heat (in his head, at least – he looked strong), and then readjusted to stay in control. “The whole first half of that heat wasn’t great,” he said. “My first wave was a really good wave and I over-cooked it on my last turn. I was a bit out of sync and it threw me off on my second wave. Halfway through the heat, I was really starting from scratch. I had to rise above the butterflies. And I also took in what Seabass was doing, which was taking the smaller waves, where the wave was kinda coming back at him, and he could do those reverses and stuff.” Adapt and survive! Jules progresses! He’ll face Michel Bourez and Joel Parkinson in the second heat of round four. ‘Til then, dig on the remainder of round three, here.