World Champ Marks Sets Pace In Portugal With Blistering Backhand Barrage
After days of waiting through wild, windy conditions, finally it was time for the women to take the water at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal. Forced to move to a backup location further north, Championship Tour events in Europe have always demanded the ability to adapt, and today was no different. Battling through three rounds of surfing, at the end of day defending world champ and 2024 Olympian Caroline Marks has set the pace.
Blitzing through her opening round heat, in the Round of 16, Marks came up against California rookie Sawyer Lindblad. A battle of the goofy-footers the two traded blows as they pushed each other to the brink in the mixed up Portuguese conditions. Racking up the highest two heat scores of the day, Lindblad would have won any other heat she surfed in the round, but Marks backhand attack proved to be too relenting as she pushed her two-wave combined score to the 16-point zone.
“That was a super fun heat, I think we both found where to sit out there on those really nice wedges,” Marks surmised afterwards. “The backhand is both our strength and every time I have a heat with Sawyer it’s a high scoring one. I was really focused on doing my thing and we ended up having high scores, those heats are really fun and it feels good to come out on top.”
World Title Race Heats Up, Big Names Tumble On Opening Day In Portugal
Marks will now face fellow American Lakey Peterson in the quarterfinals. They’re the only two surfers left in the women’s draw with an American flag on the shoulder of their rash guard. Surfers from Hawaii Bettylou Sakura Johnson and Gabriel Bryan are also both into the quarters. On the same side of the draw, the two could meet in the semifinals if they both win their next heats.
Australia’s Tyler Wright is the only other former world champ still in the event. She’ll go up against Bryan in the quarters. After winning her Round of 16 heat, Wright explained how she’d been dealing with some offseason health issues and is finally starting to feel better.
“I’ve had a fair few doctors and specialists tell me they don’t know how I do what I do,” Wright explained in her post-heat interview. “I found out that most of the time I’m under-oxygenated and semi-suffocating. My airways are too small basically and over the off season I had it expanded. Honestly it’s been life-changing, it’s the sanest I’ve ever felt. It’s really successful, it’s changing my life but it’s also a process and that’s only step one and a half of a multi-step process.”
Into the quarters, headed for finals day, stay tuned for more from Peniche as we get down to the business end of this one.
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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.