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.
Aussies Molly Picklum, Jack Robionson Sweep Hurley Pro Sunset Beach
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.