Three days of Super performance

With three days of the contest down, dawn to dusk surfing, and every version of Portuguese March weather to the mix, it's all still to surf for apparently!

Friday dealt the most spectacular cards so far, in terms of size and difficulty, and the contestants who've made it through have certainly earned their place. I was personally thrilled and relieved that Kelly made it thought the elimination round, because these stops always seem to go one way or another for him, and the smaller messy fare of Thursday was simply not his stage. For me at least, a stop without Kelly as far as the semi's is a little like a curry without the chilli. It's still delicious, but seems to lack a certain something that makes a curry, well, a curry! Having grown up with Kelly in the water, when Kelly gets eliminated, a little bit of the contest flavour is lost along with him. (Needless to say, I'm in the Kelly corner and the Pipeline result simply made my month of January!)

Enough about Kelly, let's talk Brazilian! Italo of course is in the game - I feel he can be relied upon here to do what he does best! He looks like he's having a blast, surfing like there's nobody else around! Italo gives up priority even in final minutes just so that he can have as much fun as his full thirty golden minutes allows!

Filipe is also surfing really well this stop. Totally unlike Italo, he was vibing Chilly Pilly this morning, delivering his 360's as groovy discospins in the foam. The surfers who enjoy the most really do seem to perform the best. Italo or Filipe could easily walk away with it now.

I've counted nine Brazilians on tour (including the Pupo brothers who had a tense fraternal match off today), so far three to the quarters and still waiting on what Ibelli and Jadson Andre can do! What a country for dealing up great surfers!

The other surfing world power, Australia, with nine tour surfers too, has delivered us a strikingly young bunch of superstars lately, and two very tight all-Australian heats today! I was sad and surprised to see Jack Robinson go, as I'd pinned him as one of the best tube riders (along with John John and Kelly, but where do I stop!...Ethan Ewing...Colapinto...!!!) but Callum Robson earned his place in the quarters.

I'm happy too to see that Jordy is still there. He had his work cut to take out the Sunset champ and he's guaranteed to impress.

Kanoa's being talked about too of course, and not for the first time! I always think of Kanoa as a numbers guy - he'll always know exactly what he needs and how the rankings will fall, and the pressure and competitive drive might just get to him.

And then there's John John :) Well, let me go on record now as having tipped him for the Supers pro, haha. Not a unique prediction I'm sure, but he's just such a flawless (and flowy!) machine in the water. There aren't many surfers who can glide, slip or sneak their way out of a diminishing tunnel, but John John simply never fails to deliver.

And there must be something in the Portuguese water...or else the cold is numbing our surfers' feet! Have they got the wrong wax! (you thought Portugal was warm, right?!) There were many many incompletions today that cut some potential excellent scores down in size. Is it possible that we might all surf better in warmer water?! I'd have to ask Irish big wave surfer, Conor Maguire :)

Conditions turned really optimal for the women as the tide dropped this morning, giving them beautiful steep glassy walls to show off their stuff.

We've got three former world champs in the quarters, no surprise, but gotta hand it to Tatiana Weston-Webb for women's performance today. She showed pretty clearly that her frontside is just as dangerous as her backhand. A pity for seventeen year old Luana who really did put it up to her right to the end.

Tyler was nailing all the rights today, and I'm finding I like her more and more. Her competitive drive since her recovery back on tour had dominated her persona, in my view, the past years. But ever since the Pipeline Pro this year, her good sportsmanship, enjoying the surf for the fun of it, and her impressive commitment in some of the biggest Pipe in competition ever, I'm a big fan. I can see her taking the Supertubos throne and I'd be happy for it - she truly deserves it!

Tomorrow... it's all to play for. The lefts were better on Friday, the rights today. I think the outcome might depend on how what conditions deliver tomorrow, Kelly and John John thriving on bigger gnarlier barrels. Ethan Ewing is one I'm watching too. Tyler might do better with rights, Tatiana is going to excel with either. Or as it went with Sunset, we might get some fresh surprises! Kikas is still carrying the torch for Portugal, he's gonna get the crowd going! I for one am going to be there at 7.30

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