It was a mixed day for Europe’s top surfers under the new competition format, as they took on 3-4 foot (1 metre) waves in the Bells Bowl. Marlon Lipke went out to Australia’s Dayyan Neve, scoring 7.60 to Neve’s 14.00. Tim Boal went through against fellow Frenchman Mikael Picon, notching up a reasonable 14.50 against Picon’s 11.46. Aritz Aranburu narrowly missed the cut against Australia’s Kieren Perrow, going down 12.50 to 12.23.

Boal will now face the USA’s Bobby Martinez in round two, while Pires, who went through against Dustin Barca of Hawaii, will take on the mighty Mick Fanning of Australia.

The story of the day went to Jordy Smith who took the win against the hotly tipped wildcard Matt Wilkinson, notching up the highest heat total, with an outstanding 18.70 out of a possible 20. In a heat reminiscent of their junior career scraps, Smith lit the surf up and sent a message out to fellow competitors.

The upset of the day went to Owen Wright of Australia who took out American Dane Reynolds. Wright said, “I went out there knowing that I needed to get a wave under my belt straight up and put the pressure on him. I did that and got the wave, surfed it all the way through and managed to get a little back up.”

RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 1: David Weare (ZAF) 13.00 def. Nathaniel Curran (USA) 11.16
Heat 2: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.33 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 6.26
Heat 3: Jay Thompson (AUS) 14.66 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 6.60
Heat 4: Taylor Knox (USA) 15.84 def. Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 10.16
Heat 5: Dayyan Neve (AUS) 14.00 def. Marlon Lipke (DEU) 7.60
Heat 6: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 12.50 def. Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 12.23
Heat 7: Jihad Khodr (BRA) 10.83 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 8.50
Heat 8: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.50 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 10.50
Heat 9: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 18.70 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 11.66
Heat 10: Adam Robertson (AUS) 9.56 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 9.00
Heat 11: Mick Campbell (AUS) 13.83 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 9.84
Heat 12: Dean Morrison (AUS) 13.10 def. Nic Muscroft (AUS) 10.17
Heat 13: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 12.83 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 11.77
Heat 14: Drew Courtney (AUS) 14.42 def. Greg Emslie (ZAF) 11.83
Heat 15: Tim Boal (FRA) 14.50 def. Mikael Picon (FRA) 11.46
Heat 16: Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.50 def. Dustin Barca (HAW) 11.17