The Opening Round of any Championship Tour event isn’t exactly must-watch programming. Sure, it’s great to avoid a trip to the Elimination Round but even if one does have a sluggish first heat it’s not like they’re packing their bags right away. But it’s probably more important in the big picture.
Wednesday’s opening round of the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal featured a long list of men we’d expect to see in the mix for this year’s Finals Day getting the Do Not Pass Go cards. Four of the current top 10 are going to be surfing in the Elimination Round (Kanoa Igarashi, Liam O’Brien, Ryan Callinan, Ian Gentil). Griffin Colapinto, a world title contender and Finals Day competitor in 2023, will be trying to avoid that 265-point throw away score with them. And three-time world champ Gabriel Medina will be in the Elimination Round.
Does it really matter?
If any of those top-10 names go home it will absolutely shake up the rankings. And if Colapinto and/or Medina go home they are officially on a watchlist for the mid-year cut with just two contests to make up ground. Colapinto’s relegation to the Elimination Round could be especially frustrating if he were to go home before the Round of 32. His opening round stumble is entirely the result of a priority interference call that came in the last 30 seconds of his heat with Callum Robson and Mateus Canhoto. That’s a painful pill to swallow.
Seven different surfers won events on last year’s schedule, which represents a good dose of parity across the Championship Tour. All seven of those surfers finished the year in the top 10. Of those wins, only João Chianca’s win (in Portugal, by the way) came after having to fight through the Elimination Round. Griffin Colapinto and Miguel Pupo both surfed Elimination Round heats in their 2022 wins in El Salvador and Tahiti respectively. Outside of that, event winners on the men’s side have been coming from athletes who skip the Elimination Round altogether. But in the bigger picture, an Elimination Round loss hasn’t been endured by any surfer to finish in the top five since the WSL introduced its winner-take-all Finals Day at Trestles.
So it’s fair to say this particular Elimination Round at Supertubos is worth watching.
