You tell me.


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As we mentioned yesterday, a couple of Round Two heats on Thursday were so ridiculously stacked with A-listers that it's hard to believe this is only a Prime-rated event. Generally when such claims as 'superheat' are made the reality never lives up to the hype. Today was different.

There was no shortage of drama this morning, both 'superheats' came down to the wire. The waves were mediocre peaks again today, but plenty of rideable waves to be had.

Heat 6 saw Tanner Gudauskas, Alejo Muniz, Josh Kerr and Kelly Slater face off at 8am this morning. Tanner jumped out of the gates early with a 9 and a 7.33 within the first 13 minutes and never looked back. The battle for second would see Kerr and Slater trade places several times. As the heat expired it was Kerr needing a 6.48 behind Kelly. Josh caught a tiny wedge and threw a perfect pop-shuvit and headed to the inside, looking good to get the score if he could make the connection. The wave did not cooperate and fizzled out, leaving Kerrzy to wonder what if..

In heat 8, which was Dane, Julian, Kolohe, and Aritz Aranbaru, Kolohe got the early jump, nailing an 8.17 for an inverted backside air-reverse, and quickly backed it up with a 5.67 for a frontside blow-tail on the outside, and looked like he would easily take the heat.

Then Dane Reynolds woke up about midway through the heat. He caught an average left wedge and proceeded to pull a huge backside full rotation air-reverse for a 9.33, the highest wave score of the day. He then backed that up with an 8.1 o get the highest heat total of the day, and a dominant victory.

Meanwhile the other three surfers were slowly building scores, all three needing mid range scores to advance behind Dane. Aritz caught (and claimed) a decent left where he did a sliding reverse on the outside and connected the remaining dots into the shorebreak. The judges gave him a 7.57, putting him .06 above Kolohe. With under ten seconds left, Andino found a hail mary wedge and was able to crush it to the beach for a 7.5 and the last second win. The kid showed no signs of the nerves you'd expect for such a young fellow surfing against his heroes.

The matchups for Round Three are shaping up to be just as intriguing. Check it out live here.

Photo: Kolohe Andino arriving for his heat against Dane Reynolds, Julian Wilson and Aritz Aranburu.

If you spent the last few days ignoring friends and family to watch the Quik Pro Snapper contest like me, you may have noticed the awesome little Quik ads featuring their a-team riders. You may have even commented to your imaginary friends that they are so well shot, like they came straight out of a movie. Well that's because they did silly! Quik has been working on a new film called MOMENTS and those ads are little snippets from the movie. You can watch the whole thing below and holy shit is this thing impressive.

For the third straight event in a row, Dane Reynolds has been sent home packing with an early round flame out, finishing with yet another 33rd (dirty turd) at the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro in Brazil on Sunday as Round Two (the losers round) was completed in lumpy, bumpy, overhead yet mushy wind swell remnants. "I'd say this was an uncharacteristic loss for Dane," said Kelly Slater, who was commentating the heat. "But unfortunately this isn't all that uncharacteristic anymore."

Reynolds was clearly having trouble finding targets to hit. But even Slater thought he missed an opportunity or two for launch. Slater called him out online when Dane failed to launch off a sloppy closeout section. "He has trouble when it's mushier. He likes more lip and a little more power to it." One of the more interesting little stats Slater revealed was that he and Dane have lost to the same person in the last two events. Both lost to Owen Wright at Bells and Aritz Aranburu in Tahiti.

"That'd be pretty stressful for me if I drew Tiago next round, given the recent history," Slater added with a laugh.

Fortunately for Slater, he dodged the Pires bullet (which was one of the rare ones that big him last year, in Bali) for now. Slater will instead face Aussie Ben Dunn in Round Three. The only other major casualty on Sunday was Fred Patacchia, who apparently didn't get to cash the karma points he earned Saturday for letting Slater use his boards. This was Fred's earliest exit this season.

Notable Round Two survivors included Jordy Smith, C.J. and Damien Hobgood and Nathaniel Curran, who advanced out of his first heat this season after beating veteran Kieren Perrow. "Hopefully I can build a little momentum for a result here," Curran said after, acknowledging the transition hasn't been easy. For Reynolds, anohter early exit will most likely put him out of the Top 30. Whether he cares or not is always up for debate.

ROUND THREE MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 2: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Tim Boal (FRA)
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 6: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Dustin Barca (HAW)
Heat 7: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS)
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Nathaniel Curran (USA)
Heat 10: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 11: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 12: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Chris Davidson (AUS)
Heat 13: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 14: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Josh Kerr (AUS)
Heat 15: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 16: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Chris Ward (USA)