After an underwhelming beginning to the year at the Billabong Pro at Pipeline, the forecast looked a little better – albeit still not fantastic – for the men’s Hurley Pro Sunset Beach. And that’s how it turned out, with solid conditions prevailing throughout much of the event window. A few big scores at the tail end of the tournament made up for a slower start, and it culminated in a thrilling final between a couple of big names. This is how it went down.
The Event
Opening Round
The Opening Round continues to be an underwhelming beginning to each Championship Tour event, with 12 heats taking place only to see 24 of the 36 surfers advance through to the Round of 32, and the other 12 not eliminated, but sent to the Elimination Round – where eight of those 12 in turn make it to the next round.
The majority of the big names made it through this round unscathed, with John John Florence the standout scoring 15.83, while Filipe Toledo also looked strong. By far the biggest name to be sent to the Elimination Round was Aussie Jack Robinson, who finished third in a relatively high-scoring and very tight heat.
Elimination Round
Robinson avoided disaster and made his way into the Round of 32 in the first Elimination Round heat, but it wasn’t as easy as he would have liked. He managed only 8.50 in that heat, just beating out big wave surfer Kai Lenny, who managed 8.00, and falling short of compatriot Jackson Baker, who managed 9.77.
Connor O’Leary was next to go, losing comfortably to the Hawaiian duo of Ian Gentil and Keanu Asing, before a Hawaiian was subsequently eliminated in the third heat in Ezekiel Lau. In the final heat of the round, Frenchman Maxime Huscenot was sent packing by Matthew McGillivray and Nat Young.
Round of 32
The Round of 32 kicked off the next day in decent conditions, with Robinson once again kicking things off; and once again doing so successfully. After an underwhelming start to the event he turned it on in this heat, putting up a 15.50 – the second highest score of the event to that point.
Florence was the next big name to advance, though he didn’t do it easily against an impressive Ian Gentil. Ethan Ewing followed him through to the Round of 16, then Kelly Slater, then Gabriel Medina, then Griffin Colapinto, then Filipe Toledo, in that order.
The big guns were flying, and Italo Ferreira joined the party in the 13th heat, before an impressive Joao Chianca did the same. Kanoa Igarashi came up against Jackson Baker in the final heat of the round, and it was potentially the most entertaining of the contest to date, Igarashi ending up victorious 15.07-15.00.
Round of 16
With virtually no surprise exits in the Elimination Round or the Round of 32, the Round of 16 had a plethora of enthralling matchups. It began with Robinson taking on Leo Fiorivanti, and the Aussie continued his form from the previous round with a strong 14.33 total – though even that was only just enough to stave off Fiorivanti. In the second heat, we finally got an upset – Florence only scoring 8.83 and being knocked out by Nat Young.
The next few matchups were invariably going to see some big names go; in the third heat, Ewing matched up against Slater, and Ewing beat the man 27 years his senior easily. Next up, Medina had what loomed as a tough matchup against Colapinto, and it proved as much, with Colapinto winning that one 13.93-11.10.
The next three heats were essentially a celebration of Brazilian surfing, with Seth Moniz the only non-Brazilian in them. He was comfortably beaten by Toledo, before Caio Ibelli beat Miguel Pupo and Joao Chianca continued his impressive form with a big win over Ferreira. Igarashi finished off the round with another tight and high-scoring heat, but this time he went down to McGillivray.
Quarterfinals
Since the first couple of rounds, Robinson had surfed as well as anyone, and despite a three-day break between the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals, he continued that form in the final eight. He was far too good for Nat Young, winning 14.76-9.33, before one of the few men who had surfed as well as him to date at the contest in Colapinto won similarly easily against Ewing – setting up a mouth-watering clash between the two in the semis.
Toledo, who had been good without being spectacular to this point, reminded everyone what he’s capable of in the next quarterfinal, beating fellow Brazilian Caio Ibelli 17.07-12.44. It was then Joao Chianca’s turn, and he continued to show a consistent ability to put together massive scores that could make him a surprise contender for the top five. He managed 15.23 – incidentally his lowest score since the Opening Round – to dispose of McGillivray and make his way into the semis.
Semi-Finals
Robinson and Colapinto had surfed brilliantly prior to the semis, so their matchup always loomed as a good one, and it delivered in spades. In solid conditions, they went toe-to-toe, managing five scores in excess of 8.00 between them. When the bell rang, it was Colapinto in front, winning a hugely entertaining heat 17.90-16.33.
The questionable honour of having to take him on in the final was then fought out between Toledo and Chianca, both coming off big scores in the round prior, and they repeated the effort in the semis. Chianca is really, really good. He managed yet another big score, this time a 15.54, but it wasn’t enough to knock off the reigning world champ, with Toledo booking his spot in the final courtesy of a 16.33.
Final
High score after high score in the lead up to the final boded well for this contest, and it delivered. Toledo and Colapinto surfed out of their minds in a hugely entertaining heat, Colapinto kicking things off with a 9.17 on his first wave. A 6.33 followed, taking him to a very competitive total of 15.50 after just two waves.
Toledo, meanwhile, started with a 7.83 on his first, but took a while to lock in a second good score. When he did, it was an 8.27, which gave him a slight lead over Colapinto in the dying minutes. With the seconds ticking down, a big set came through; Colapinto needing a very achievable 6.93 to tie, assuming Toledo didn’t better his score.
So what did Colapinto get? A 6.93, tying things up with just seconds to go. Unfortunately for him, however, Toledo had torn the wave behind to shreds, and when the scores rolled in for that, it was a heat-best 9.47; enough to secure the reigning world champ his first win for the season.
The Standings
Robinson remains on top of the standings after following up his win at Pipeline with a semi-final appearance, while Toledo has leapt into second with his win. Consecutive semis for Joao Chianca have seen him establish himself in third, while Fiorivanti and Ibelli round out an unexpected top five. The big names are nipping at their heels, however, with each of Colapinto, Florence and Medina all inside the top ten.
Italo Ferreira is one name a lot further down the leaderboard than one would have expected after a Round of 32 exit was followed by a Round of 16 defeat, while Igarashi has endured the same set of results.
What’s Up Next
The Hawaiian leg didn’t quite deliver the kind of conditions of which we know it’s capable, but hopefully that trend changes in Europe. After a couple of weeks break our athletes head to Portugal for the MEO Rip Curl Pro, which will take place at Supertubos in Peniche. The event window runs from the 8th to the 16th of March; let’s hope it lives up to its name.
