Mick Fanning and John John Florence steal the show, Round two of the Oi Rio Pro

Photos courtesy of WSL As expected, round two of the Oi Rio Pro was perfectly reflective of the break – unpredictable, shocking with moments of class. How fun! With conditions as shifty and chunky as ever upsets were aplenty. In the first two heats of the morning, Mick and JJF did biz as usual, claiming fairly easy wins over the two wildcards, David do Carmo and Alex Ribeiro, respectively. Mick nabbed the highest single score of the day (9.8), while JJF’s best looked more like a Tahitian mutant than a Brazilian beachie. Thick and juicy. “I was watching the water before my heat and talking to a few people to work out where to get the best waves,” said Fanning. “Once you’re out there it’s really a lucky dip. I really tried to put some scores on the board early.” John admitted, “I got really lucky with that one…It was gnarly. It felt like Tahiti or something. I had to air drop a bit to get under it. It was scary.” Scary for John means scary for, well, just about anyone. Events in conditions like this are as much about luck as it is your skill-set. And, it’s a gambler’s worst nightmare when seeding means relatively nothing to heat results. Jordy Smith, 2013 winner, went down to Kiwi rook, Ricardo Christie. “The rip is so gnarly out there though and can really change things up,” said Ricardo. “Every event I feel stronger and stronger and more comfortable… I’m making some friends and learning so much from the top guys.” Jules Wilson sank to Dusty Payne in the lowest of scoring affairs, Keanu Asing ousted Joel Parkinson, and Miggy Pupo couldn’t leverage the home-crowd support and lost to Adam Melling. Even last year’s runner-up, Brother Andino, was out-tubed by Kai Otton. After going down to Dusty, Jules showed us his version of a nasty post heat interview. Of course, it was about as gentleman-like as can be, but he wasn’t all that impressed with the water safety team. “To be honest, I wasn’t that confident catching waves and getting on the back of the jet-ski. It’s pretty chaotic. I don’t think they (the drivers) are very experienced. So I was kind of hesitant to take a few of those meaty ones.” But, once again, the highlight of day two didn’t happen on a wave. Instead, it came in the form of a jet-ski ride gone wrong that sent Parko flying high above the lip in full-flail. Round two results HT 1: 1- M. Fanning 16.63, 2- D. do Carmo 7.94HT 2: 1- J. Florence 14.84, 2- A. Ribeiro 10.83HT 3: 1- T. Burrow 10.74, 2- A. Muniz 10.20HT 4: 1- J. Kerr 9.27, 2- C. Hobgood 5.40HT 5: 1- R. Christie 13.27, 2- J. Smith 12.03HT 6: 1- N. Young 11.77, 2- B. Simpson 7.84HT 7: 1- D. Payne 9.23, 2- J. Wilson 8.00HT 8: 1- K. Asing 9.60, 2- J. Parkinson 9.50HT 9: 1- O. Wright 14.77, 2- G. Hall 5.90HT 10: 1- A. Melling 14.10, 2- M. Pupo 11.67HT 11: 1- K. Otton 12.60, 2- K. Andino 11.10HT 12: 1- A. Buchan 11.03, 2- F. Patacchia Jr. 9.33