Watch: All The Highlights From The 2024 MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal
A Championship Tour event in Europe is more a marathon than a sprint, and in the end, it was America's Griffin Colapinto and France's Johanne Defay that had the endurance to claw their way to the top of the podium.
The first day of competition was a full ten days ago, and with lay days, wild weather that included gale force winds and a heavy hail storm, and venue changes, somehow it got done. In the early days of the event it was defending world champ Caroline Marks and surging Aussie Jack Robinson that looked like they could go the distance. Then three-time world champ Gabriel Medina got into the mix. But come finals day, Colapinto and Defay's combination of steady pacing and peaking at the right time put them over the top.
Three stops of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour are now in the books. Colapinto now sits ranked number one in the world, while Defay sits number two. Both will also be making an appearance in the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year. Defay while be waving the flag of the host country, while Colapinto leads an all-star cast of Americans.
There are two more Championship Tour events on tap before the critical mid-season cut, and for those on the bubble, that means the stakes Down Under are huge. The Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach kicks off on March 26, so there's not a lot of time for competitors to regroup and refocus. For Colapinto, it probably means a quick stop home in California to pick up some new boards, sleep in his own bed for a couple nights, then it's back on the road.
California's Colapinto Takes Over World No. 1 In WSL Leaderboard Shakeup
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.