Day six of the Quiksilver Pro, France

“That was a tough heat,” said Dane Reynolds, after beating world number one Mick Fanning. “I was nervous before the heat coming up against Mick in kinda tense conditions. The peaks are all over the place and unfortunately for Mick he was out of rhythm and broke his board. It’s not easy out there. There’s obviously not pressure on myself to get a result here like Mick, but I still want to perform and surf well.”

Dane’s biggest hit was a 10, which he didn’t claim, but as is his way, he talked it down. “There are better waves out there than my 10,” the Venturan continued. “Right towards the end, I was only 10 feet from a much better wave than that, but they’re extremely difficult to find. I feel really fortunate to have even found little head dips out there because it’s really challenging.”

Kolohe Andino beat Taj Burrow today and scooped his best result so far this year, making the fourth round. “I’m really stoked to get through that heat,” Andino said. “Taj has been one of my favourite surfers for so long and he’s so deadly in these conditions. I was really lucky that a backup score didn’t come to him and I was able to find that pretty good one at the end. The fourth round is the best of my year so far so I’m just excited to keep going.”

Miguel Pupo overcame Julian Wilson’s opening 9.87 to beat the Sunny-Coaster. “I’m super thankful that wave came through,” said Miguel. “The conditions are really fun and there are good barrels out there. Julian had that really good one, but couldn’t find a second one. I had a pretty okay first one and then got that good right at the end. Really stoked to get through and hopefully the barrels keep on coming.”

And Joel Parkinson danced on the inside today when his pal and (currently) biggest title opponent, Mick Fanning, lost to Dane in the heat before Joel paddled out. It was especially sweeter when Joel won his heat. “They’re really tricky conditions,” said Joel. “I saw Dane get a 10 and I wanted to try and find one like that, but I figured every other heat has been quite low scoring. So if you get a 7, it’s like a 9, and you get a 3 or a 4, the rest of the heat I just played defence trying to keep him off anything. It was a tricky heat with not a lot of waves, and a lot of paddling. It doesn’t matter in these conditions who you draw – anyone can beat anybody.”

Owen Wright and Freddy Patacchia will face off in the opening heat when competition resumes. With any luck, in a few hours’ time.

All photos courtesy Quiksilver.

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 8: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 13.67 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 9.93
Heat 9: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 8.33 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 1.83
Heat 10: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 13.17 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 7.37
Heat 11: Kai Otton (AUS) 19.33 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.50
Heat 12: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 9.76 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 8.40

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) 15.17 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 6.43
Heat 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 14.40 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.97
Heat 3: Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.27 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.07
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.84 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.50
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) 6.60 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 5.50
Heat 6: Dane Reynolds (USA) 16.50 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 2.60
Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 10.07 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 6.60
Heat 8: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.76 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 7.70

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 10: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 11: Gabriel Medina (BRA) Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 12: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)