Rip Curl Pro, Portugal day two, wildcards find form

Well, the first seven heats of round two were boring. The waves were warbly and gutless. Apart from a few shining moments and some upsets there’s not too much to write home about. Today the non-Portugese wildcards prevailed. First Caio Ibelli took out Owen Wright. “For my size, the waves didn’t really cooperate,” said Owen in a post heat interview. He surfed to the best of his ability, there just wasn’t enough push to give him the drive he needed. It looks as if Caio will be qualifying for the CT next year. “Checking the waves before my heat I couldn’t really plan anything because every three minutes the rip completely changes the wave,” Mr Ibelli told the WSL. “I just tried to keep busy and move around to try to be in position for the good ones. It’s my first heat win ever on the CT, and it feels really good.”

Mason Ho found the right waves to put Julian Wilson out of the competition. Jules stayed busy, but it just didn’t seem to click for him. Mase found a little tunnel to slip into for the first decent score of the heat. Then in the later minutes stomped a clean rotation to the flats. “It’s cool to have my dad over here, we made a little plan and I stuck to it even though at times I thought I should go camp with Julian,” said Mason after the heat. “But I got a couple of opportunities and luckily I landed everything.”

“I’m shattered, to be honest,” said Julian. “The conditions today are better than when I surfed my first round and we had a good heat. Mason was able to get an air at the end and turn the heat. You work so hard all year to get in the title race and then it comes down to these conditions. It’s a tough pill to swallow for sure.”

John John Florence had the highest heat total of the day with a 16.20. John was looking fresh and made the most of the meager conditions set forth by Supertubos. “I was a little nervous because Glenn is such a strong surfer,” Mr Florence said. “I have the rest of the year to prepare and get ready for 2016, so I’m taking advantage of each heat to see what works.”

Round two results:
Heat 1: A. de Souza, 12.43, T. Pires 6.17
Heat 2: C. Ibelli 13.33, O. Wright 12.37
Heat 3: M. Ho 13.93, J. Wilson 13.06
Heat 4: I. Ferreira 11.50, T. Hermes 9.74
Heat 5: J. Flores 12.76, A. Aranburu 12.00
Heat 6: R. Christie 10.73, W. Dantas 8.70
Heat 7: J. Florence 16.20, G. Hall 8.70

Upcoming:
Heat 8: K. Otton, C. Hobgood
Heat 9: J. Parkinson, A. Melling
Heat 10: A. Buchan, S. Zietz
Heat 11: J. Andre, K. Andino
Heat 12: M. Pupo, M. Bourez