Owen Wright, Portugal

Heat four, round four of the Rip Curl Pro, Portugal, was a young-modern affair. Brazilian Jadson Andre, South African Jordy Smith, and Australian Owen Wright took apart what Jordy describes as the ‘Dream Tour’ – a sandy-bottomed, wedging beach break. All three are new-jacks by most standards – Owen and Jadson are tour rookies, and Jordy’s WT experience only runs a coupla years deep.Jordy dominated the heat, finishing on a two-wave total of 17.16, and managing a 9.93 outta 10.00 for one full-rotar air reverse. It was a captivating heat, and a taste of things to come – each knew that the other two would be aiming for the sky, so followed suite. Jadson’s trademark air-reverse got a good showing, and found him second place. Owen finished last with a 5.67 and a 6.40, despite spending a lot of time above the lip, hand firmly grasping rail.The turn you see above was one of many of its kind from the matching. Owen tried his darnedest and threw the fins time after time, but it wasn’t enough in the end. If the tour scores more of these type of set-ups (sandy-bottomed wedges), we could be in for some serious high-performance, the likes of which have yet to be seen in a contest setting. Pull yer socks up! – Elliot Struck