Field notes: Day one Moche Rip Curl Pro, Portugal, locals prevail

The Moche Rip Curl Pro kicked off in Portugal this morning to clean yet unimpressive three to five foot surf. After three lay-days plague by meager conditions, the top 34 finally took to Supertubos after an overhyped forecast. Expectations are a fiendish beast, especially in the world of surf. They even tricked Kelly into competing. Filipe Toledo came out firing in surf best suited to him. The aerial specialist took the round one win over fellow Brazilians Tomas Hermes and Jadson Andre. “I feel super comfortable over here” Filipe said. “France was a bummer for me, I was very disappointed with my result there so I came to Portugal right away and surfed for two days. I hurt my back and haven’t surfed for the past week. Today’s heat was actually my first surf back. I feel good now, our Hurley doctor put my back all in place and it gave me time to rest which was great.” Local knowledge prevailed in the round one. Wildcard Vasco Ribeiro took out Owen Wright and Michel Bourez. “It’s really cool to surf against Owen and Michel, two of my favorite surfers,” Ribeiro said. “My strategy was to start strong with a couple of good scores because it’s hard to find the right waves. It paid off and I’m really happy. It’s amazing to feel all the support from all the Portuguese fans.” Then Frederico Morais, the other Portuguese wildcard put his gloves on and came out swinging with a strong display of rail. In a close heat, Adriano de Souza and Kolohe Andino got busy. But Mr Morais was able to stack up a total heat score of 16.47 squeaking by Brother and Adriano’s 16.27. “I’m stoked,” said Frederico. “It’s challenging out there but there’s fun waves. I was against one of the most consistent surfers on tour right now Adriano; I needed a 9.2 so I knew I had to give everything if I wanted to be back in the heat. I had to do something big, something powerful.” We weren’t sure if Mr Slater would show up for this comp. And he wasn’t either. Kelly arrived 15 minutes prior to his heat sporting a rib injury and did what the king does best. Kelly’s exemplary of any star athlete. The same way Michael Jordan led the Bulls to taking out the Jazz in ’97 while sick with the flu, hitting a three in the late seconds to seal the game five win for his team. To only be later carried off the court by teammate Scottie Pippen. Kelly does as any true legend of their sport does; he turns it on no matter the circumstances. “I got that injury about 10-12 days ago in France and I thought it was going to be debilitating. I haven’t surfed in about a week and have been taking some time off,” Mr Slater said. “I felt alright, and when the adrenaline goes you don’t think about it so much. I saw the forecast indicating we could get some really big barrels, and I didn’t want to miss that if it happened.” Gabs’ residual flame from France continued in round one with a huge backside roter to take the win. “Last year I had a lot of pressure. This year’s been different for me,” said Gabs.  “I’m so relaxed and happy to be here in Portugal — I love this place. It was a tough heat against Miguel (Pupo) and Mason (Ho), the waves were hard to find and to surf.” Kerrzy took it back to his air show days in round one. He stayed busy and kept pumping until he really blasted one. The last heat of the day Josh threw a steezed out stalefish air-revo. Wiggolly Dantas and Adam Melling couldn’t compete with Mr Kerr’s aireal prowess. Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 1 Results:Heat 1: Filipe Toledo 13.17, Tomas Hermes 12.83, Jadson Andre 8.40Heat 2: Gabriel Medina 14.00, Miguel Pupo 12.60, Mason Ho 10.86Heat 3: Keanu Asing 12.30, Caio Ibelli 12.07, Julian Wilson 8.07Heat 4: Vasco Ribeiro 12.17, Michel Bourez 11.47, Owen Wright 11.07Heat 5: Frederico Morais 16.43, Adriano de Souza 16.27, Kolohe Andino 16.27Heat 6: Mick Fanning 13.24, Tiago Pires 10.17, Sebastian Zietz 9.10Heat 7: Kelly Slater 13.90, Aritz Aranburu 11.86, Adrian Buchan 8.67Heat 8: Brett Simpson 16.13, Joel Parkinson 15.33, Italo Ferreira 14.60Heat 9: Matt Wilkinson 15.63, Jeremy Flores 13.07, Ricardo Christie 12.67Heat 10: Nat Young 12.60, Kai Otton 10.34, Glenn Hall 9.54Heat 11: Bede Durbidge 14.17, John John Florence 11.60, C.J. Hobgood 10.16Heat 12: Josh Kerr 15.97, Wiggolly Dantas 13.94, Adam Melling 10.04 Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 2 Match-Ups:Heat 1: Adriano De Souza vs. Tiago PiresHeat 2: Owen Wright vs. Caio IbelliHeat 3: Julian Wilson vs. Mason HoHeat 4: Italo Ferreira vs. Tomas HermesHeat 5: Jeremy Flores vs. Aritz AranburuHeat 6: Wigolly Dantas vs. Ricardo ChristieHeat 7: John John Florence vs. Glenn HallHeat 8: Kai Otton vs. C.J HobgoodHeat 9: Joel Parkinson vs. Adam MellingHeat 10: Adrian Buchan vs. Sebastian ZietzHeat 11: Jadson Andre vs. Kolohe AndinoHeat 12: Miguel Pupo vs. Michel Bourez