MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal: Highlights of the 3rd and 4th Days of Competition

The Championship Tour (CT) event saw two intense days of competition before being put on stand-by due to a storm hitting the Portuguese coast.

Day 3: Twists Before the Interruption

The third day started slowly, with competitors having to wait for several hours due to a lack of waves. The swell gradually picked up around mid-morning, allowing the competition to start, before conditions became too solid and forced the organizers to halt the event prematurely.

Before this interruption, the Women's Quarter Finals and three heats of the Men's Round of 32 were completed.

Some of the day's highlights include:

• American Caroline Marks eliminated defending champion Johanne Defay.
• Molly Picklum defeated two-time world champion Tyler Wright.
• CT rookie Erin Brooks surprised everyone by eliminating current leaderboard leader Caitlin Simmers.
• Jack Robinson impressed with incredible barrels, including a wave scored 8.17 in his heat against Ian Gentil.

On the Rip Curl team, only Molly Picklum and Erin Brooks remained in contention.

"I knew facing Tyler would be tough, she's an amazing competitor who inspires me a lot in the water. It was the kind of heat where I thought: okay, this is serious, I need to be at my best. The conditions were great, the swell was slowly building, and a good left came through – always a real pleasure. I was just super excited to go surf, and then I thought: okay, now, let’s get into competition mode!" said Molly Picklum after her heat.

Unfortunately, Crosby Colapinto and Samuel Pupo were eliminated, by Liam O'Brien and Yago Dora, respectively, while Tyler Wright was defeated by Molly Picklum.

Day 4: A Promising Start Before the Stand-By

On Tuesday, March 18th, the competition resumed but stopped after about four hours of surfing. The call was made at 8:05 AM CET (7:05 AM GMT) to start the Men’s Round of 32, followed by the Men’s Round of 16, which were run in overlapping 40-minute heats.

Highlights of the day:

• Italo Ferreira impressed with an incredible air scored 8.17 against wildcard holder Jorgann Couzinet.
• French rookie Marco Mignot scored an 8 with a stunning air, eliminating Griffin Colapinto from the competition.

Since then, the competition has been put on stand-by due to the arrival of a major storm on the Portuguese coast.