In marginally improved conditions, the women's division of the U.S. Open of Surfing started the day off with their round four heats, and immediately the upsets came flowing through. First Hawaii's Malia Manuel, who became the youngest Open winner ever at age 14 in 2008, beat the ever-tough Tyler Wright. Then came the shocker of the day as Californian Sage Erickson made short work of five-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore.
"Coming up against Steph there were so many things going into the heat because she's an amazing surfers," said Erickson in her post heat interview. "It feels surreal because I've struggled on tour this year and to have the monkey off of your bac, it feels really good going into the latter part of the QS. WT level is another bar and the level is so high, to out perform any of the girls is an honor and to get in the final and be carried up the beach in front of my hometown crowd would be surreal, but obviously the next goal is the Quarterfinals."
Then Coco Ho knocked out world tour counterpart Laura Enever, and Paige Hareb defeated Pauline Ado to finish off the round. And like that, the women's quarterfinalists have been decided.
"It's starting to get exciting," said Carissa Moore. "There supposed to be a little bump in the swell and it should be great for the weekend."
On the men's side the no-loser round of 24 took the water around mid-day, and true to its billing the surfers didn't hold back. Winning the heat means you get to skip a round, but second and third place finishers still move on.
As to be expected, Gabriel Medina stole the show, posting a 19.03 heat score, he's set the bar high for the rest of the event. The Brazilians more or less owned the round, Filipe Toledo, Miguel Pupo, Jesse Mendes and Adriano De Souza all won their heats as well.
Other favorites to advance were John John Florence and Julian Wilson.
"I was just taking off on everything, really," said Wilson in his after heat interview. "I was just trying to find an opportunity. It was similar to my last heat where we had an eight-minute lull. It's never that fun when you can't get it going in a heat, but it was a fun second part to the heat. I was going for one big move and I didn't really want to hassle Simpo (Brett Simpson) because I knew he'd be looking for those lefts. I just looked for the rights and it worked out."
WOMEN'S NIKE US OPEN OF SURFING ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Malia Manuel (HAW) 11.10 def. Tyler Wright (AUS) 10.17
Heat 2: Sage Erickson (USA) 14.74 def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 11.90
Heat 3: Coco Ho (HAW) 12.00 def. Laura Enever (AUS) 6.00
Heat 4: Paige Hareb (NZL) 14.87 def. Pauline Ado (FRA) 13.76
WOMEN'S UPCOMING NIKE US OPEN OF SURFING QUARTERFINALS MATCH UPS:
QF 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) vs. Malia Manuel (HAW)
QF 2: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Sage Erickson (USA)
QF 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Coco Ho (HAW)
QF 4: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Paige Hareb (NZL)
NIKE US OPEN OF SURFING ROUND OF 24 RESULTS: (No Losers)
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 13.24, Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 12.17, Kai Otton (AUS) 10.30
Heat 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 16.44, Jay Thompson (USA) 10.43, Tim Reyes (USA) 10.27
Heat 3: Jesse Mendes (BRA) 12.40, Stu Kennedy (AUS) 11.50, Dane Reynolds (USA) 6.06
Heat 4: Nathaniel Curran (USA) 18.06, Yadin Nicol (AUS) 14.84, Kelly Slater (USA) 14.47
Heat 5: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 19.03, Granger Larsen (HAW) 15.20, Nat Young (USA) 9.27
Heat 6: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.30, Mitchel Coleborn (AUS) 13.57, Alex Ribeiro (BRA) 12.10
Heat 7: John John Florence (HAW) 15.57, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 13.44, Lincoln Taylor (AUS) 12.87
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.33, Brett Simpson (USA) 13.54, Keanu Asing (HAW) 12.33
NIKE US OPEN OF SURFING PRO JUNIOR QUARTERFINALS RESULTS:
QF 1: Kanoa Igarashi (USA) 16.77, Hiroto Ohhara (JPN) 12.73, Keanu Asing (HAW) 11.83, Trevor Thornton (USA) 7.67
QF 2: Conner Coffin (USA) 18.00, Michael February (ZAF) 14.67, Evan Thompson (USA) 13.87, Tanner Hendrickson (HAW) 10.00
QF 3: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 17.24, Kalani David (HAW) 11.67, Hiroto Arai (JPN) 9.80, Kaimana Jaquias (HAW) 8.84
QF 4: Cooper Chapman (AUS) 15.33, Taylor Thorne (USA) 12.46, Derek Peters (USA) 7.67, Andrew Doheny (USA) 6.37
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