Eight heats of Women’s Round 2 and eight heats of Men's Round 3 completed today in junky 6 foot surf with some bigger washthroughs keeping pro surfers honest. 

It was a day where smashing the end section meant “putting your body on the line to score a 5,” according to heat winner Caity Simmers.

Caity (WSL/Ryder)

Surfing IQ was at a premium: navigating warped, wobbly, yet sizable chunks of water to try and find big turns. Simmers did it well and was able to summarise the endeavour as “doing as well as you can with what you got.”

Not many easy reads on offer. 

That difference in surfing IQ was manifested most clearly in the most anticipated heat of the day between Gabe Medina and Jack Robinson. All of Gabe's waves were ugly, misshapen things with random curves and shards of lip breaking all over the shop. Despite this, Medina somehow found big moments on all of his scoring waves. Deluxe bottom turns, major detonations in the lip, or big swoops through the end convergence. 

Jack’s attempts to join the dots, by contrast, lacked the Brazilian’s flow and exclamation points. There was no attempt by Jack to try and intimidate or get hustley with Medina, thankfully. Anything that adds fuel to a sense of siege mentality for the Brazilian Storm is bad tactics short term and a losing strategy long term. He was just soundly beaten by the superior surfer on the day.

Gabby (WSL/Ryder)

Minor alarm bells now for Team Robinson with the Gold Coast and Raglan ahead and the heavy lefts still months away. Meanwhile, Medina is in cruise control with no weak events ahead. 

89 waves ridden in Women’s Round 1 without an excellent ride, and 44 ridden today before Pickles finally clubbed a left with two massive vertical hooks for the first excellent ride of the women's draw. That alone was praiseworthy. Even more so her post facto analysis in the presser when describing her desire for a wave with a meaty section: “If you are committed and attacking, they can’t not score that.” 

That was music to my ears. Committed and attacking.

Pickles (WSL/Anderson)

But of course, you have to execute.

Erin Brooks tried to commit and attack but couldn’t stay connected or find the right section and got narrowly beaten, again, by Lakey Peterson. The much-hyped Zebrowski and still-hyped Brooks have now been bundled out early in successive contests. 

Caz Marks looked the most impressive of the other women winners today with two big connections into the lip which showed, finally, a more aggressive approach. 

“You have to keep moving,” said Pickles after her dominant win and that approach was taken up by Carissa Moore in her tight win over Isabella Nichols. Riss never found the wave or the section she was looking for but kept the scoreboard moving enough to wedge Nichols into needing a score with fewer and fewer chances for the opportunity to arise.

Of the Aussie men, despite the gruelling Changa campaign, George Pittar looks the freshest and most potent. Nine waves ridden, a ton of duckdiving sets before finding the winning wave against Leo Fioravanti with two massive top turns. 

It sounds almost ridiculous to ask but does Pittar have the best forehand top turn on tour right now? George spoke later about relishing the difficult battles, increasing his level of grit in tight encounters, using last year's rookie of the year Marco Mignot as his template. He obviously took the loss against Miggy Pupo at Bells as fuel and he now goes into the quarters at Margs with full confidence against world champ Yago Dora.

Yago (WSL/Ryder)

Being an underdog, as alluded to earlier, is a valuable mental state. Somehow, despite winning all but three world titles since 2014, the Brazilian Storm has been able to maintain an underdog mindset. Judges are against us, local surfers hate us, other pros are trying to bully us etc etc. They band together and put up the siege walls, ever vigilant to repel a fresh attack. It’s a state of readiness and high motivation.

Compared with the preparation of, say, Ethan Ewing. Feted since a kid, told constantly through the off season his surfing looks unbeatable, he’s the best surfer in the world, favourite for the title. How hard not to let that messaging creep in with its inevitable accompanying complacency.

Ethan looked almost put upon at Bells that he was forced to surf such crap. 

His performance against Miggy today was better, but the Australian still looks like he is waking from a slumber - maybe dreaming he has won a world title before he’s even surfed a heat. 

Up against a rampaging Italo in the Quarters will be no easy heat. Ferreira has found the Tom Carroll formula for making a small body look big. Pump up the thighs, ride bigger boards and throw massive turns at big sections.

Italo (WSL/Ryder)

The WA coastline looks, and is, ancient, but the limestone reefs of the south-west corner were formed, in geological framing, five minutes ago. It’s basically beach sand from ice age maxima when high dunes formed. These dunes of sand and shell fragments were lithified into the tamala limestone reefs of the WA coast. They did some heavy lifting today, transforming at least some of the shitty, onshore lumps into surfable fragments. That provided, along with overlapping heats, far more entertaining viewing than European closeouts.

The Colapinto brothers did a better job than most at deciphering those lumps into surfable sections. It was a heat, in my view, that could have gone either way but judges paid a huge closeout smash from younger bro Cros for the win. 

Griff and Cros (WSL/Ryder)

Comprehensible and consistent is all we can ask from judges and they have delivered that so far this season. They want clean execution on everything which makes my heart sing. One of my pet peeves has been flubbed turns getting paid. If the turn has a bog in it, if speed is lost, if it looks messy, is messy, and has lack of control it’ll be short changed. That’s fair enough.

Now for the long break and trying to remember to care when they finally get finals day underway.

//STEVE SHEARER

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Women’s Round Two Results
HEAT 1: Gabriela Bryan (HAW) 9.67 DEF. Yolanda Hopkins (POR) 8.44
HEAT 2: Sawyer Lindblad (USA) 9.60 DEF. Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) 7.60
HEAT 3: Caroline Marks (USA) 12.27 DEF. Francisca Veselko (POR) 10.17
HEAT 4: Lakey Peterson (USA) 10.10 DEF. Erin Brooks (CAN) 8.34
HEAT 5: Molly Picklum (AUS) 15.50 DEF. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 9.30
HEAT 6: Luana Silva (BRA) 10.97 DEF. Sophie McCulloch (AUS) 10.07
HEAT 7: Caitlin Simmers (USA) 11.40 DEF. Vahine Fierro (FRA) 7.40
HEAT 8: Carissa Moore (HAW) 9.16 DEF. Isabella Nichols (AUS) 8.47

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Round Three Results
HEAT 1: Samuel Pupo (BRA) 14.00 DEF. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 13.80
HEAT 2: Joel Vaughan (AUS) 9.33 DEF. Liam O'Brien (AUS) 6.34
HEAT 3: Crosby Colapinto (USA) 13.67 DEF. Griffin Colapinto (USA) 13.43
HEAT 4: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.90 DEF. Jack Robinson (AUS) 10.63
HEAT 5: Yago Dora (BRA) 10.34 DEF. Connor O'Leary (JPN) 7.03
HEAT 6: George Pittar (AUS) 13.53 DEF. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 12.46
HEAT 7: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 13.40 DEF. Joao Chianca (BRA) 12.80
HEAT 8: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 11.40 DEF. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 10.73

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Women’s Quarterfinal Matchups
HEAT 1: Gabriela Bryan (HAW) vs. Sawyer Lindblad (USA)
HEAT 2: Caroline Marks (USA) vs. Lakey Peterson (USA)
HEAT 3: Molly Picklum (AUS) vs. Luana Silva (BRA)
HEAT 4: Caitlin Simmers (USA) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Quarterfinal Matchups
HEAT 1: Samuel Pupo (BRA) vs. Joel Vaughan (AUS)
HEAT 2: Crosby Colapinto (USA) vs. Gabriel Medina (BRA)
HEAT 3: Yago Dora (BRA) vs. George Pittar (AUS)
HEAT 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Ethan Ewing (AUS)