It was a day of upsets at Rainbow Bay in round one of the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast.
The biggest upset came from Aussie Matt Wilkinson over reigning world champion Joel Parkinson.
It was a bad start to Parko’s title defence, but he couldn’t be too disappointed with the heat, only being outscored by 0.03 points, falling short with his last wave.
The heat was arguably the highlight of the day, with both Parko and Matt Wilkinson seemingly in great form with their heat in ideal conditions on the superbank, and even though Joel Parkinson must now contend a round two re-match with wild card Brent Dorrington, he would have to remain one of many favourites for this year’s Pro.
Wilkinson was impressive, but was remaining humble with his round one upset, saying “(t)he forehanders and backhanders are pretty even out there. Hopefully I can just keep doing backhand rips and see how far I can get.”
Another highlight came from South African Travis Logie, scoring two massive waves in the last five minutes of his heat to snatch victory from heat favourite Adriano De Souza in the highest heat score of round one.
Logie later said of the conditions “(t)he waves are really long, you are paddling against the current, and you have to make your own speed on the wave.”
The standouts for mine remain the ever present Kelly Slater, who looked like he enjoyed every minute of his tussle with rookie Kolohe Andino and the expressive Dane Reynolds.
Otherwise, Mick Fanning looked clinical in his win over Sebastian Zietz and Willian Cardosa was well as possibly Matt Wilkinson.
There remains a host of others who, if they can get into rhythm, could upset any of the favourites in current conditions. The knockout round two looks to be another massive day, and will tell more about how the competitors are travelling to start the season.
Joel Parkinson’s title win last year seems to have lit the fire in the field of surfers this year, proving that the unbeatable Kelly Slater is beatable, but it will be again be consistency through each event that will determine the outcome.
Competition will likely remain at Rainbow Bay today, not Snapper Rocks, and the superbank performing well in growing swell.
The forecast is that swell will continue and possibly improve through the week, with whispers competition may be moved to Kirra later on.
Current conditions seem to be suiting the backhanders particularly on the incoming and high tide, with outgoing tide seeming to chop up conditions a little and surfers in these heats having to be a little more patient with their waves.
We saw throughout the first round it takes a little luck for the right waves to come, so let’s hope Russ Corowa with his didgeridoo on Snapper Rocks can summon the right waves for some of the Aussies.
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