Kelly Slater’s Replacement, Lucas Silveira Sends Adriano de Souza To Round Two

After a handful of hiccups including a shooting and the washing away of the competitors bridge at Postinho, the Oi Rio Pro kicked off at the backup venue of Grumari. The morning’s conditions were cleanish, not overly exciting but if it was at your local you’d still go out and find some sections to bang a few turns.

After being forced to pull out of Bells and Margies with a groin injury, Filipe Toledo’s back, healthy and sticking to the hard-carved plan we saw at Snapper. In round one v rookie and Kelly Slater’s Wavepool enthusiast, Kanoa Igarashi and Dusty Payne, Filly found form after a few throwaways. He put up an eight with a whipping cutty, followed by a hard jam into the closeout. It’s becoming obvious that Mr Toledo’s rail is as deadly as his airs. If it weren’t for the injury at Snapper, it’s likely he’d be world number one right now and a healthy Fil is going to be hard to beat in unpredictable beachies.

Sir Leo Fioravanti, who’s been donned the worst nickname since ‘Holy Toledo’, the ‘Italian Stallion’, continued on his heater coming off his quarterfinal finish at Margaret River. Leo fed former World Champ and last year’s Triple Crown Winner, Gabriel Medina to round two with layback jams and a small air reverse to cap off his highest wave score of the heat (7.60). At Margies he took out Adriano de Souza and Kelly Slater. With Gabs, he can now scratch up three former world champions to his conquered wall.

The money maker for online gamblers, Italo Ferreira, continued his good form sporting the highest single wave score (9.00) and highest heat total of round one (16.50). In an all Brazilian heat (there’s 14 of them in this event, this probs won’t be the first) he blasted two vicious backhand carves on a short lived right for a nine. Then backed it up with a 7.5 on his next. His countrymen, Miggy Pupo and Bino Lopes couldn’t compete.

The man in the yellow jacket, Matty Wilko, will see himself in round two, his first sudden death this season. He couldn’t find much to work with, tallying an 8.73 total. Complete unknown, Marco Fernandez sent the Jeep leader and Jadson Andre away from the third round with a couple of decent backside hits.

The 11x World Champ’s replacement and last year’s World Junior’s Champ, Mr Lucas Silveira dropped Adriano into the elimination round. It was a backside battle for the two Brazilians in wonky left handers. ADS put up a 7.53 in typical ADS fashion, fitting four hard jams off the top in a space that the average surfer may drop one or two (and this is why he holds the title). The replacement answered back with a smaller wave and a similar three hard turns off the top. In the last two minutes Lucas was able to capitalise on his score, letting the fins loose on a lined up lefthander and claiming it in pure Brazilian poise. It was a thriller in vanilla, let’s be honest but we’ll give it him, he just took out the world champ…

In shitty waves with soft lips, John’s all power, utilising his blade from the kick of the tailpad to three-quarters up the nose. 

The nice thing about beachbreaks is it gives the surfers an aura of creativity. And, this is where John John Florence changes colour. By the time buzzer sounded for heat 12, the waves gone to shit. And once again, it was a face-off between Caio Ibelli and Mr Florence for the third time this year. With not much to work with John found two scores in the five range, with a narrow defeat over Caio, 11.34 to 10.84. John surfed smart, with priority in the final seconds, blocked Matt Banting and hucked a backside slightly corked air reverse. He didn’t ride out, nor did he improve his situation but he also didn’t lose to Caio again. And, for that, John World Title Fans breathed a sigh of relief.

It isn’t always pretty but Italo’s the gambler’s favourite. After his breakout Rookie of the Year season in 2015, expect yet another quarters result or better.

A few other things to note from opening day at Rio. Newcastle rookie, Ryan Callinan has made his way into round three for the second time this season over Brazilian Wiggolly Dantas and Kolohe Andino. Okay, so it wasn’t Lost Atlas-style surfing but Ryan looked good using some rail. 

Brazilians took half of round one and looked comfortable in the junk. They’re taking up 41 percent of the competitor’s pie graph this event. We don’t see that changing through any round of the event.  

Round one results: 

Heat 1: F. Toledo, K. Igarashi 11.60, D. Payne 11.30
Heat 2: L. Fioravanti 14.30, S. Kennedy 12.93, G. Medina 11.80
Heat 3: D. Cathels 12.00, J. Wilson 9.24, D. Silva 7.43
Heat 4: I. Ferreira 16.50, M. Pupo 10.86, B. Lopes 8.66
Heat 5: M. Fernandez 13.43, J. Andre 11.57, M. Wilkinson 8.73
Heat 6: L. Silveira 15.84, A. de Souza 13.80, K. Asing 13.74
Heat 7: N. Young 15.01, M. Bourez 9.37, A. Ribeiro 5.83
Heat 8: J. Smith 12.37, C. Coffin 10.83, J. Freestone 10.70
Heat 9: A. Melling 15.23, J. Flores 15.13, J. Kerr 15.04
Heat 10: R. Callinan 15.53, W. Dantas 13.44, K. Andino 7.67
Heat 11: A. Muniz 13.50, A. Buchan 13.46, S. Zietz 12.77
Heat 12: J. Florence 11.34, C. Ibelli 10.84, M. Banting 6.34