World Title Race Heats Up, Big Names Tumble On Opening Day In Portugal
Flying out of Hawaii, John John Florence was riding high in the number one spot on the WSL Championship Tour leaderboard, but right there in his slipstream was number two Jack Robinson. With two events in the books, heading into the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, the only Championship Tour stop in Europe this year, the pair have not only set the pace, they also appear to ready to go toe to toe this season. And after the opening salvo at Supertubos complete, it’s advantage Robinson.
In a stacked heat with California rookie Crosby Colapinto and Portuguese wildcard Joaquim Chaves, a hyper-focused Robinson took to the sky, launching a lofty alley-oop and coming down with the smoothest of landing. The judges tossed him an 8.83 out of 10 for the effort, and like that Robinson cruised to a relatively easy heat win.
“I was just trying to go as high as I could,” Robinson said afterwards. “I knew Crosby was probably going to go big too and the wildcard you never know, so I tried to make do with what I had. It’s good to be back here in Portugal.”
Florence, up against Aussie rookie Jacob Willcox and French wildcard Marco Mignot, didn’t come out of the gates swinging quite as hard as Robinson. Only tallying a 7-point heat total, it was just enough to edge out Mignot and advance in second place behind Willcox.
Overall, it was a challenging day for some of the most established surfers on tour. Last year’s world title contender Griffin Colapinto was relegated to the elimination round after drawing an interference call. Three-time world champ Gabriel Medina, who’s coming off of an ISA gold medal in Puerto Rico, will be joining him there, as will Olympic silver medalist Kanoa Igarashi and 2023 rookie of the year Ian Gentil.
The MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal wrapped for the day when a storm front rolled into Peniche. Strong winds forced organizers to call the event off for Thursday, March 7, with the next possible running coming on Friday, March 8.
