With the Quiksilver Pro France only finishing less than a week ago, we have a quick turnaround as head to Portugal for the MEO Rip Curl Pro. Event is scheduled to take place on October 20th-31st.
Gabriel Medina gained five places in the rankings after his Quiksilver Pro performance that saw him take out first place in such an important event for the season. We all thought we would see solid performance from all the surfers competing for the world title, instead it gave the rest of the field a chance to score some points and rise in the rankings.
Wild card Marc Lacomare was on a mission during his heats. After the first round loss he came into the second round full of confidence as he knocked out title contender Julian Wilson then continue his form into the third round knocking out the leader of the competition Jordy Smith. His luck ran out in the quarters against Kolohe Andino when he could only register a 6.10 in decent size waves.
Without a win since Margaret River John John Florence has been creeping up on the leaderboard and was a bee's dick from regaining the lead. Again he was unable to get through the semi’s but more importantly he now leads the race and will be hard to take down with only two events now left. In any sport it's hard to be on top if you aren't winning the events, but in Florence’s case consistency leads the race.
As we head south on the Western Europe coast we now focus on the next event held in Peniche, Portugal. In the surfing atlas Peniche is famous for one thing and that is the world famous beach break Supertubos. Supertubos is everything you want for a pre warm up to Pipeline, it's heavy and the tubes are long and fast. With less than a week to the event starts the swell is looking very positive and we could well and truly be on the way come Saturday.
Last year John John took out this event against your American Conner Coffin in a one sided final and if he wins this event again he will almost seal the deal to be back to back world champion. Only Mick Fanning has won this event twice since the event began in 2009 and no one has won it back to back. It's a no brainer that Jordy Smith needs to make the finals in Portugal after the third round exit in France, he can only be thankful that Florence didn't win the event.
Gabriel Medina has come out of nowhere, he was ranked eighth before France now is a chance for the title. In the past Medina hasn't had the best record in Portugal but this year has been full of surprises and with a victory in France he will close to favorite in this event.
It's difficult to look past the top three for a victory in Portugal, but if we look towards a roughy in Portugal you can't look past Filipe Toledo who is the beach break extraordinaire and Kolohe Andino who has been putting up some good numbers and finished France in the Semis.
TIP: Jordy Smith to win the Rip Curl Pro Portugal - $7 at CrownBet
