Miguel Pupo on an Alfred Hitchcock set, Portugal

There were hundreds of them… Just now, not fifteen minutes ago… at the beach… the birds didn’t attack until the men were in the water… crows, I think… Oh, I don’t know, is there a difference between crows and blackbirds?… I think these were crows, hundreds of them… Yes, they attacked the men. Attacked them!

We kid! Portugal ain’t usually an eerie place, but this photo looks like a set from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, in which Bodega Bay is overrun with suddenly-violent birds. In the moment you see above, Miguel Pupo was warming up at Peniche, just before Rip Curl Pro organisers called a lay day. While the Brazilian spins over the shorepound, beneath a swarm of ravens, a swell builds and heads for the Supertubos banks (which are excellent right now, by the way). So, the call wasn’t a bad one. When the event does fire up, it’ll be the heat draw below that’ll unfold with gusto and excitement.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Brett Simpson (USA), Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS), Alejo Muniz (BRA), Jadson Andre (BRA)
Heat 3: John John Florence (HAW), Kai Otton (AUS), Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA), Damien Hobgood (USA), Dillon Perillo (USA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Kolohe Andino (USA), Pierre Valentin Laborde (FRA)
Heat 7: Owen Wright (AUS), Bede Durbidge (AUS), Yadin Nicol (AUS)
Heat 8: Josh Kerr (AUS), Heitor Alves (BRA), Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 9: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 10: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Michel Bourez (PYF), Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 11: Jordy Smith (ZAF), C.J. Hobgood (USA), Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 12: Julian Wilson (AUS), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Tiago Pires (PRT)