At Supertubos, one of the best Peniche surf spots, yet another giant fell during the Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal event, as Gabriel Medina was relegated to the 5th round.
Peniche surf spots see the fall of surf giants
Weather has not been the best around the Peniche surf spots and Supertubos is no exception, so the event was moved to the backup location of Molhe Leste. After the lay day on Monday, Tuesday saw some surf only during the morning with the remaining heats of the 4th round, which was enough to grant a defeat to Gabriel Medina. We maintain the Brazilian surfer is getting better after an underwhelming 2015, but the heavy squall that hit Peniche this Tuesday was not to his benefit and Medina was bested by Ítalo Ferreira, who delivered a very solid performance for a 9.0. The rookie of the year has been in fact one of the highlights of a very surprising event.
With Ferreira now at the quarter finals, Medina will compete on round 5, heat 4, and he will have to really perform well if he wants to have a shot at the world title. As you will know, the WSL allows a surfer to drop his two worse results from his tally and should Medina actually surf away from round 5 to win the Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal he will be placed ahead of Fanning. One thing is certain: with Fanning out of this event, the last leg of the WSL championship tour at Hawaii will be exciting.
The story is different for Brett Simpson, another surfer having a lacklustre year, but having defeated Kelly Slater in round 3, the Californian is now in the quarter finals, has now bested Nat Young at round 5, heat 2. His next challenge, though, will probably not be easy as he will be up against Frederico Morais, the Portuguese surfer who made history by becoming the best qualified Portuguese surfer ever.
Another winner of the day was Jeremy Flores, who bested Vasco Ribeiro with 14,63 points vs 10,6 points. The 27 year old French clearly dominated the heat, while Ribeiro was at first uncomfortable with Molhe Leste, in what was his first time surfing the location. His 10,6 points were nonetheless enough to grant him a place on round 5 where he will go up against Michel Bourez.
So far, Ítalo Ferreira, Frederico Morais, Filipe Toledo and Jeremy Flores are in the quarter finals. That"s 3 Portuguese-speaking surfers and chances are good for a whole Portuguese speaking semi-final, much to the credit of the "Brazilian Storm", which really appears to be set to take over the world of surf, currently having 4 surfers in the WSL Top 10. All things considered, Brazilian surfers can end up dominating the event.
Not all is domination, though, as Adriano de Souza was taken out of the competition by Vasco Ribeiro.
The next call is set for Thursday at 7a.m. when we will see who will fall and who will prevail in this tough and surprising event. At the Peniche surf spots of Supertubos and Molhe Leste, surf history is being made and most of it is written in Portuguese.
