Remarkably, he won the trials again the following year. Equally remarkably, he would come up against the same three surfers he had surfed against the year before, and this time beat all of them. After losing to Parko in his Round 1 heat, he beat Jordy Smith comfortably in Round 2, before claiming the most coveted scalp of all in Round 3, beating Slater 18.34 to 16.44. Taj Burrow was next to fall in Round 5. As in the previous year’s contest, it would take a top seed to stop him; Mick Fanning, who went on to win the contest, had to be at his best to top Ricardo’s 18.64.

Dos Santos’s performance had been emphatic, and he was duly rewarded with the Andy Irons Forever Inspiration Award, given every year since Andy’s passing to the event’s most committed surfer. “Ah man, that’s even bigger than being a champ,” said Ricardo, visibly moved and wearing an AI Forever t-shirt, on accepting the award. “Andy was a hero to me.” To watch it now is desperately sad.

To put things in perspective, the other winners of the Andy Irons Award are Jeremy Flores, John John Florence and Owen Wright.