If you had walked the beach at Supertubos anytime early this morning you would never have believed that the ninth world championship tour event for 2011 would be underway by early afternoon.
At the first 7:45 a.m. call this morning the waves were barely knee high, but by the time organizers made the final call around 1 p.m. Supertubos was starting to live up to its name with small fun tubes on offer and a quickly-building swell that proved tricky for even the best surfers in the world.
Surfline had forecast a building swell and they were spot on. There was a quick expression session around midday as the swell began to appear and Joel Parkinson found a few warm-up tubes to his liking. The organizers also liked what they saw and called the contest on. It must be a European thing where nothing really gets underway early, starting late and finishing the day after the sun has gone down seems to blend in with the lifestyle.
But Parkinson has had a month he'd rather forget surf wise. The Trestles event didn't work out the way he planned, and in the Quiksilver Pro in France last week he had an absolute "shocker" of a result that looked like he'd been knocked him out of the world title race.
"It's just actually good to surf a fun heat after my crap result in France," said Parkinson after leaving the water. "Now I'm out of the title race it was good to surf a heat where I was calm and had no real pressure, it just felt good."
Parkinson was also happy about the conditions that had looked marginal earlier. "It was fun to get some waves," he said. "I really felt it was going to be one of those scrappy battles of the 3s and 4s (point rides) again, but it wasn't, it was a really fun heat."
When it was pointed out that he had the very first tube of the whole event at Supertubos he just laughed and said, "Hopefully I'll get the last too."
Parkinson is technically not out of the World Title race. According to the ASP Tour Manager, Renato Hickel, who has run all the scenarios through his computer, mathematically he can still win the world title. When this was relayed to Parkinson he was surprised. "Oh really," was his first reaction. "OK, well mathematically I can ... (laughing) but don't tell me that or I could go back to that dud roll I was on before. I'm having fun now with no pressure and I'd rather be surfing that way than thinking a title."
With the first round completed just after the sun set there are other guys who are already looking dangerous. Gabriel Medina backed up his Quiksilver Pro win by defeating his fellow countryman Raoni Monteiro and Portugal's national surfing hero, Tiago Pires. It was a closely fought heat with all three guys bustling and jockeying for waves. Pires ended the heat with an interference call on Medina, and Monteiro was not happy with some of the hassling he'd been involved in with Medina. The tour rookie might only be 17 years of age but he's already showing he won't back down when it comes to positioning in the lineup or wave selection.
The surf built through the afternoon and even though it got tricky with the high tide mid-round, Supertubos was providing left and right barrels for everyone.
Brett Simpson found a few deep tubes to his liking, so did Mick Fanning who notched up one of the top scores of the round. Damien Hobgood got deep on the lefts, Chris Davidson got shacked on the rights, and Kelly Slater survived another high tide heat.
"I hate those high tide heats," said Slater (laughing) post heat.
"It was a little frustrating out there but the swell was pretty small early so I wouldn't have been too happy if they had started any earlier than they did ... the swell is real warberly because of the high tide and luckily it didn't end up being super crucial ... mine weren't the best waves, I caught the biggest wave in the heat, but it wasn't a very good one and then I caught a mid size set wave and the one behind it was probably the best wave of the heat and I was caught inside for that one and took it on the head. It was tricky conditions," he explained.
When you have the world champ admitting he got the biggest wave of the heat on his head then you know it wasn't easy, but the organizers were smiling at the end of the day after getting the whole of round one completed, even though Josh Kerr, Dusty Payne and Alejo Muniz were sent out after the sun had set. Kerr won the heat in the twilight.
There are big expectations for tomorrow with the forecast predicted for 10-foot surf and offshore winds. Supertubos breaks right on the sand even at this size, so if there is no fog and the backwash doesn't mess up the wave faces we could be in for an epic day of surfing.
RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.87, Jadson Andre (BRA) 15.47, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 11.93
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.50, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.80, Adam Melling (AUS) 10.00
Heat 3: Daniel Ross (AUS) 10.07, Taylor Knox (USA) 9.14, Taj Burrow (AUS) 7.12
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS) 14.23, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 10.34, Justin Mujica (PRT) 4.80
Heat 5: Chris Davidson (AUS) 14.60, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 8.90, Francisco Alves (PRT) 7.67
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.10, Bruno Santos (BRA) 7.53, Travis Logie (ZAF) 4.70
Heat 7: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 16.43, John John Florence (HAW) 13.50, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 4.87
Heat 8: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.87, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 12.90, Tiago Pires (PRT) 2.79
Heat 9: Damien Hobgood (USA) 14.07, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 13.60, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 6.00
Heat 10: Brett Simpson (USA) 17.43, Heitor Alves (BRA) 6.23, Michel Bourez (PYF) 6.17
Heat 11: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.10, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.77, Kai Otton (AUS) 9.73
Heat 12: Josh Kerr (AUS) 16.30, Dusty Payne (HAW) 16.24, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 10.33
RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Bruno Santos (BRA)
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Francisco Alves (BRA)
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Justin Mujica (PRT)
Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 5: Alejo Muniz (BRA) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. John John Florence (HAW)
Heat 7: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 9: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 10: Jadson Andre (BRA) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 11: Miguel Pupo (BRA) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 12: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)