Dane Reynolds, you can only hide from us for so long. The first two waves of your heat against Jules Wilson, Hank Gaskell, and Tomas Hermes, was the kind of poetry we’ve been fiending for. fiending!

Sunset Beach was in fine form today, and by that I mean she was a real pain in the ass for pretty much everyone. Big, lumpy, and moody. Triple-overhead sets stacking up on the outer-backyards reef and rumbling down the point into washy peaks with the odd gem that would double-up on the inside reef. Lots of paddling and lots of paddling, in between duckdives and more paddling.

Still, despite the chaos, Daynolds was able to put himself under the peak of two of the best waves of the day within the first few minutes of today’s last heat, and surfed them each with the perfect pairing of casual simplicity and reckless abandon. 9.37 and 9.00. 18.37. The highest heat total of the day. By a lot. For example, Dane Gudang won his heat with a 7.67 two wave total today.

Ironically, the only other truly dominant display was in the day’s very first heat, where Jordy Smith was able to nab two gems and crush them for the second highest heat total, 17.47. Jordy Smith was built to surf big Sunset, as evidenced by his past finals appearances, and as long as he doesn’t blow a limb mid-heat again, look for him to keep his roll going.

As this swell backs down, and conditions improve, the contest could be back on tomorrow morning at 8 am local time.