Despite challenging inconsistent conditions, local Taj Burrow made it through his Round 1 Heat. Photo: ASP

With not a whole lot of swell on the immediate horizon, yesterday saw the men’s and women’s event make the most of challenging inconsistent conditions at Margaret River to complete respective Round 1s.

Up in the second heat of the say, Jordy displayed a solid return to form after his hiccup on the Goldie with a series of ferocious forehand carves on the right-hander.

“I’d like to better my result at Snapper,” commented Jordy in his post heat interview. “It’s a long year ahead and I’m sure that many of the tops guys will have bad results at some point. Hopefully my result at the Gold Coast was my bad one out of the way and I can look forward to a good year ahead.”

Taj Burrow was up next, but another wave starved heat didn’t make it especially easy on the local event favourite who eventually squeezed through in the final minutes with two mid-range scores.

“I had a really bad heat to be honest,” said Taj. “I’m going to take that as a warm up. I feel very lucky winning that one. I missed a really good wave and Brett (Simpson) got it. I was really angry after that so I tried to compose myself. I’ll take the win but I have to do a lot better than that in the next Round.”

However, other local favourite Yadin Nicol put in a much more commanding performance to relegate both Kelly and Bede Durbidge to Round 2, who were both still in need of excellent scores by the end of the heat to come back at the event wildcard. An stickerless Kelly will now have to face trialist winner Nathan Hedge in his Round 2 bout.

“It felt great to beat Kelly Slater,” commented Yadin, no doubt relieved to move on from his previous humiliating loss to Kelly last year at Huntington Beach. “I wish I could have done that last year or the year before. I felt comfortable out there. I usually don’t start out that well so I’m happy to have one under my belt. There wasn’t much going on in that heat so Slater and Durbidge didn’t have much of a chance to fight back, so I was lucky in that sense.”

The final hotly-anticipated men’s heat of the day saw aerial vanguards John John and Gabes Medina do battle in the final heat of the day along with Kolohe Andino, all of them again taking to the Margaret River right-handers. Florence opened up the affair with a monster forehand rotation to take an early lead. However, Medina answered back with a huge helicopter backhand aerial transitioning into a series of powerful turns and a heat score neither Florence or Andino would be able to best.

“That was a hard heat against John John and Kolohe. It felt good to win and it’s given me more confidence for the rest of the competition,” said Gabriel Medina. “I started doing airs because I saw John John going for it. That’s how competition works, we are all pushing each other to raise the level. It feels good to be the rankings leader, there is pressure but I’m feeling great.”

Drug Aware Margaret River Pro Round 1 Results:

Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 12.23, Nat Young (USA) 8.77, Aritz Aranburu (ESP) 8.23
Heat 2: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.33, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 10.70, Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 6.26
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 10.77, Brett Simpson (USA) 9.50, Fred Patacchia (HAW) 7.60
Heat 4: Adam Melling (AUS) 13.17, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 10.83, Mitch Coleborn (AUS) 9.30
Heat 5: Yadin Nicol (AUS) 15.23, Kelly Slater (USA) 11.87, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10.37
Heat 6: Mick Fanning (AUS) 13.17, Nathan Hedge (AUS) 9.43, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 7.57
Heat 7: Julian Wilson (AUS) 16.00, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 11.53, Dion Atkinson (AUS) 9.17
Heat 8: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.57, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 11.06, Travis Logie (ZAF) 8.90
Heat 9: Josh Kerr (AUS) 10.50, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 4.83, Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 10: Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.50, Owen Wright (AUS) 11.26, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.86
Heat 11: Kai Otton (AUS) 13.40, Mitch Crews (AUS) 12.83, Michel Bourez (PYF) 11.10
Heat 12: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.40, John John Florence (HAW) 14.67, Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.96

Drug Aware Margaret River Women’s Pro Round 1 Results:

Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 13.83, Coco Ho (HAW) 7.16, Alana Blanchard (HAW) 5.13
Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 9.16, Paige Hareb (NZL) 6.77, Pauline Ado (FRA) 3.46
Heat 3: Carissa Moore (AUS) 11.43, Laura Macaulay (AUS) 11.04, Alessa Quizon (HAW) 6.13
Heat 4: Tyler Wright (AUS) 11.50, Johanne Defay (FRA) 10.76, Dimity Stoyle (AUS) 7.86
Heat 5: Malia Manuel (HAW) 12.50, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 9.17, Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) 7.57

Drug Aware Margaret River Pro Round 2 Match-Ups:

Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) v. Nathan Hedge (AUS)
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) v. Mitch Coleborn (AUS)
Heat 3: Nat Young (USA) v. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA) v. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 5: Adriano De Souza (BRA) v. Aritz Aranburu (ESP)
Heat 6: John John Florence (HAW) v. Dion Atkinson (AUS)
Heat 7: Michel Bourez (PYF) v. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 8: Owen Wright (AUS) v. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 9: Adrian Buchan (AUS) v. Mitch Crews (AUS)
Heat 10: Jeremy Flores (FRA) v. Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 11: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) v. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) v. Bebe Durbidge (AUS)

Drug Aware Margaret River Women’s Pro Round 2 Match-ups:

Heat 1: Dimity Stoyle (AUS) v. Alana Blanchard (HAW)
Heat 2: Pauline Ado (FRA) v. Paige Hareb (NZL)
Heat 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) v. Laura Macaulay (AUS)
Heat 4: Lakey Peterson (USA) v. Johanne Defay (FRA)
Heat 5: Coco Ho (HAW) v. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS)
Heat 6: Alessa Quizon (HAW) v. Laura Enever (AUS)