When a surfing contest director has a smile on his face mid-event, you know things are going well. Damien Hardman, former world surfing champion-turned contest director for the Rip Curl Pro Portugall, had a permanent smile plastered on his face today and for a very good reason.
The Julian Wilson vs. Kai Otten round three match up had just finished and Hardman was leaning against one of the competitor structures, arms folded just soaking up the atmosphere.
"I've just watched the best heat I've ever seen," he stated. It's a very heavy wrap from somebody who has been around competitive surfing for over 25 years.
The heat he was describing was run in perfect Supertubos conditions, an A-frame peak right in front of the judging stand with left and right barrels on offer for the whole 30 minutes.
Kai Otten had started the heat with a 9.9-point left and a double fisted claim to top it off. This wave set the scene for the whole heat with Julian Wilson answering back then Otten scoring another deep lefthander. He was having the heat of his life but Wilson was not letting that effect him pulling into rights and lefts for his own 9-point rides. Imagine chalking up a 9.9 and not winning the heat?
"I felt a little against the ropes after he had a 9.9," said Wilson later on the beach, "I knew I had to back it up with a really good wave so I was just trying to make the most out of the perfect conditions."
When told that Damien Hardman described the heat as the best he'd ever seen, Wilson cracked a smile and said, "Well it was the funnest heat I've ever had, so I'm glad he enjoyed it."
Hardman wasn't the only person enjoying the conditions. The big crowd was clapping and whistling virtually every ride and the surfers themselves were trying to stay clam and just slow things down so they could concentrate on their heats.
Taj Burrow was happy to make it through today, after a disappointing first round loss.
"It's amazing conditions out there today," he said after his heat, "All the boys are so stoked. I had to really try and calm myself down because this is like the most perfect surf for a contest. It's just spitting barrels each way. There's no real advantage for anyone, there's rights and lefts and you just have to find them. It's funny, you just want to go out there and enjoy it and drop into barrels and not even care, but at the same time you really have to focus and make sure you come out of two good ones."
Burrow made it out of two good ones and so did Bede Durbidge, who had two heats today. The organizers ran the whole of round two and eight heats of round three. Durbidge defeated Kieren Perrow in his first heat in near perfect conditions, then backed up against Mick Fanning in the last heat of the day. Durbidge scored the first perfect 10-point ride mid-heat and like a lot of other guys who'd done solid spelunking, came out with a big double-fisted claim. The crowd was on their feet and also claiming the ride, some were even holding up ten fingers giving the score before the judges had locked it in.
While Durbidge advanced, some big names didn't. Jordy Smith was taken out by Fred Patacchia and may be out of the world title race. The other big upset of the day was Chris Davidson knocking out the talk of the surfing world, last week's Quiksilver Pro winner, Gabriel Medina. Medina never got started in the heat and left the water two minutes before the end, needing a combination of wave scores to even get back into he heat.
While one tour rookie went down, another stepped up. John John Florence loved the barreling peak and slotted into Backdoor style shacks on every wave. Dusty Payne could have also thought he was back in Hawaii with meaty rights and lefts for his round two heat.
Damien Hobgood, who'd suffered from food poisoning during the night, also reveled in the tubing lefts.
"I didn't really tell anyone I had food poisoning. I was up all last night, so I just figured I was going to conserve my energy as much as possible this morning, but I felt good out there."
Hobgood might have been trying to conserve his energy, but he was also trying not to get too excited about the conditions.
"If you get too excited, you just end up spinning out by the time you surf your heat. So I think that's what everyone was trying to do, because turning up at the beach today was seriously like you had just rocked up at the most perfect beach break ever."
Conditions are due to drop slowly over the next two days but expect Supertubos to continue to do its thing. It looks like this event will go the same way some of the recent events and be over after running four days straight.
RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.74 def. Bruno Santos (BRA) 10.97
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.10 def. Francisco Alves (BRA) 6.57
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 16.83 def. Justin Mujica (PRT) 8.64
Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.77 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 15.23
Heat 5: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 14.43 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.90
Heat 6: John John Florence (HAW) 19.53 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.97
Heat 7: Heitor Alves (BRA) 15.50 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.20
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.04 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 15.87
Heat 9: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.97 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 13.93
Heat 10: Dusty Payne (HAW) 16.63 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 12.27
Heat 11: Travis Logie (ZAF) 16.43 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 14.76
Heat 12: Taylor Knox (USA) 13.73 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 9.30
RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.57 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 8.43
Heat 2: Damien Hobgood (USA) 16.33 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 15.30
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) 19.13 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 18.40
Heat 4: Chris Davidson (AUS) 14.10 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 5.10
Heat 5: Heitor Alves (BRA) 12.77 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.20
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.86 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 16.37
Heat 7: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 15.06 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.90
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18.33 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.17
RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 9: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 10: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 12: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. John John Florence (HAW)