Yesterday, in his round 1 heat, Dane Reynolds was barely edged out by Adam Melling who caught two late behind-the-rocks tubes. Dane’s 14.90 was the third-highest losing heat score of the day– behind Joel Parkinson’s 15.43 and Damien Hobgood’s 16.50.

Dane’s luck didn’t change in round 2. His display of committed surfing– massive fin-wofts combined with committed rail-work– earned him a 16.06 (the fifth highest heat total of the day) and a ticket home. Unfortunately for Dane, his opponent today was Taj Burrow.

Taj was one of the round 1 upset victims, which made for the interesting round 2 matchup in an early morning heat. Despite a couple of early mistakes, Burrow settled into a rhythm and took apart the two best Snapper walls of the heat, earning him a combined score of 18.10– the highest heat total in round 2.

Not all was lost among the crop of California’s freak talent. In the final heat of the day, Kolohe Andino beat Brett Simpson with a combined score of 14.33, moving on to round 3 and winning his first heat of the season.

Watch Dane vs. Taj here.