Wilko on his way to up-setting ranking leaderMick Fanning’s Round 1 result. Credit: ASP.

With more inconsistent conditions on hand today, world tour competitors were faced with much the same frustrating deal as what they experienced in France. The ocean handing out high scoring rides to a lucky few while the rest of the field battled closeouts.

The first big upset of the day came when 16-year-old West Oz wildcard trials winner took down Kelly thanks to a long left-hand barrel he lucked into early on in their heat.

“It was pretty fun out there, I got a couple of good ones,” Wilcox said. “I was stoked to get the opportunity to surf against those guys in the Trials, let alone win so I’m really happy. I got a few waves out here yesterday so I knew the banks pretty well and this is my second time competing in a WCT so I just knew I had to keep calm and it worked out pretty well.”

In the very following heat, world tour misfit Matt Wilkinson then proceeded to put together the most dominant performance of the day, relegating White Lightning and local injury wildcard Francisco Alves.

“I knew where I wanted to sit and I was just hoping that the conditions wouldn’t change too much,” Wilko said post-heat. “I got a few okay ones at the start and it was kind of scary I saw Mick get a wave before my last one and I thought it might be the score so I didn’t know if I was chasing a score or not. That last one, I knew I was deep, I took off and was just pumping as hard as I could cause I really wanted to make it, I was stoked.”

Currently sitting in 24th place on the rankings, Wilko is currently on the bubble and needs a strong finish to the year if he is to re-qualify for next year.

“I feel like I’m competing well, hopefully I can keep doing it. I love it here, getting barrelled on a sandy bottom is the funnest thing you can do, and here’s one of the best places in the world to do that. This year the bank is more lefts than rights, which I’m pretty stoked about. It makes you feel good running down the beach and knowing there’s a lot of support, I’m not really sure why but they seem to always liked me so I like it here too!”

And that was more or less it. The heat draw results say the rest.

With not much swell forecast for the next couple days there’s lightly to be another few lazy lay days ahead before Round 2.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 1 RESULTS:


Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) 11.34, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 4.63, Yadin Nicol (AUS) 4.20

Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 11.50, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 6.53, Brett Simpson (USA) 4.93

Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.00, Travis Logie (ZAF) 7.77, Dillon Perillo (USA) 2.96

Heat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.43, Frederico Morais (PRT) 9.16, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 5.90

Heat 5: Jacob Willcox (AUS) 13.07, Kelly Slater (USA) 9.60, Kolohe Andino (USA) 5.50

Heat 6: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 17.37, Mick Fanning (AUS) 12.60, Francisco Alves (PRT) 7.56
Heat 7: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 12.77, Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.07, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 3.73

Heat 8: Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.37, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.10, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 7.16

Heat 9: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 11.30, Damien Hobgood (USA) 10.50, Adriano De Souza (BRA) 9.83

Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) 11.40, Gabriel Medina (BRA) 5.63, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 5.43

Heat 11: John John Florence (HAW) 13.66, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 13.24, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 2.37

Heat 12: Nat Young (USA) 8.77, Adam Melling (AUS) 7.66, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 6.47

UPCOMING RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:


Heat 1: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Francisco Alves (PRT)

Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Frederico Morais (PRT)

Heat 3: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Dillon Perillo (USA) 

Heat 4: Adriano De Souza (BRA) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)

Heat 5: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Yadin Nicol (AUS)
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 

Heat 7: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)

Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA) 

Heat 9: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)

Heat 10: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 

Heat 11: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Adam Melling (AUS) 

Heat 12: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kolohe Andino (USA)