The swell built overnight to three to four foot and kicked off at 7.30am sirening most of the WCT surfers out of the free surf line-up.
Round 2 kicked off with wildcard Wade Carmichael taking on world champ Adriano de Souza. The first scores dropped to set the scene for the rest of the day for de Souza a 7.77 and 6.33 Carmichael for their opening ride. The waves at the point grew from three to four foot through sections allowing De Souza to pick out the best waves and take heat 1 with 15.30 to Carmichael’s 11.00.
Julian Wilson and Sebastian Zietz had a close heat with Wilson taking advantage of his priority for most of the heat. The judges called the next heat on hold to make a decision on Zietz’s final wave in the last 10 seconds for Zietz to move on to round 3 with a 13.10 to Wilson’s 11.87.
Heat 3 saw Kelly Slater and WCT replacement surfer Stuart Kennedy had a slow heat with Slater taking his time to choose waves while Kennedy kept busy. Kennedy scored the top wave score with a 9.50 with the first upset of the day eliminating Slater with a 13.10 to Kennedy’s 15.73.
After a few hours on hold while waiting for the tide and wind to drop, Australians Adam Melling and Josh Kerr took to the water. Kerr scored the highest wave with an 8.00 and Melling couldn’t find a score match to Kerr’s 13.50 and finished with a 10.83.
Heat 5 saw Jordy Smith take on rookie Ryan Callinan. Smith and Callinan exchanged the lead back and forth for a pressurised heat to see who would take the lead. Callinan landed a 8.07 and a 7.67 to make 15.74 against Smith’s 12.00.
John John Florence’s wave selection through heat 6 gave him a final score of 14.36 and the win over Davey Cathel’s 12.66.
Rookie Conner Coffin and Kai Otton were next to hit the line-up. 2016 marks Otton’s 10th year on tour against Coffin’s first year on tour. The CT rookie scraped past Otton to go through to round 3 with a 13.33 to 13.16.
Two goofy footers matched up in heat 8 with another CT rookie Alex Ribeiro against Adrian Buchan. Buchan scored the highest wave of the heat with an 8.17 and won the heat with 15.37 to Ribeiro’s 13.47.
CT rookie Kanoa Igarashi took on Keanu Asing in heat 9. Exciting exchanges between Igarashi and Asing throughout the heat ended in Igarashi taking his first CT win with a narrow lead of 12.27 to Asing’s 12.26.
The last heat of the day saw Brazilians Miguel Pupo and Jadson Andre enter the line-up for heat 10. It was a heat with small scores but loads of energy from the Brazilians with Andre heading through to round 3 with 11.43 to Pupo’s 9.07.
