Day two of the 2012 Rip Curl Pro, Portugal

Holding, holding, holding. An expression session. And, then, the remaining round two heats at Rip Curl’s Portugal Pro were finished. The waves weren’t as good as the previous day but they were certainly contestable. Only four heats were run, which saw the elimination of Matt Wilko, Adam Melling, Damo Hobgood and and local hero Tiago Pires, but we now have the round three draw loaded. The final heat of the day saw Kolohe Andino scoop a winning wave in the dying seconds to beat the event’s only portuguese surfer, Tiago Pires.

“It’s finally paying off,” said Brother. “I’ve been trying really hard to wake up early, stretch and all that stuff. It’s a bummer for Tiago, he’s probably got all his people down here but it’s cool to see that they’re really passionate about surfing and their surfers. I don’t worry about anything else except for trying to requalify and trying to have some good heats. “I was worried about trying to win an event at the start of the year, and I couldn’t even make a heat. Tavarua was like the moment when it really popped, I made a fool of myself after I lost to Tiago and then I got injured so I had some time to regroup so I’m pretty happy that I’m making a few heats here and there.”

And between self-deprecating age cracks, Kai Otton offers an look into the coming days: “I made a paddling mistake and I couldn’t catch the wave – maybe I’m too old. I don’t know, but I missed it and gave up priority and Adam actually got a nice righthander straight after. I was just lucky enough that my left was behind that, otherwise he would have had the heat. Tomorrow looks reasonably good and there’s an Armaggeddon swell coming which I think is going to wash away the whole scaffolding so they probably want to finish by Tuesday. You know, conditions like last year don’t come very often so if we get even half of that, it’d be pretty amazing.”

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 9: Brett Simpson (USA) 12.50 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 11.40
Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) 11.67 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 8.00
Heat 11: Travis Logie (ZAF) 10.94 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 10.27
Heat 12: Kolohe Andino (USA) 11.70 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.50

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Yadin Nicol (AUS)