Oi Rio Pro 2016

Last years Oi Rio Pro champion, Filipe Toldeo wrecked havoic on the worlds elite, by launching big punts like this. Can he do it again in 2016? Photo: WSL/Kelly Cestari

Introduction
With the Australian leg of the World Surf League Championship Tour all but a distant memory, we shift our attention to one of the most passionate sporting countries in the world, Brazil. Stop number 4 on the dream tour hits Barra Da Tijuca in the nations capital Rio de Janeiro. Home of the worlds best soccer team, the Haviana thong (flip flop) and the G-String bikini. The worlds elite surfers will do battle in the shifting and challenging beach breaks of Rio. Game on.

Breakdown
Barra Da Tijuca: Barra Da Tijuca is a magnificent beach with fast and hollow waves. She serves up rampy walls for every type of manoeuvre. Optimal size for this spot is 4-5 feet. When it breaks at this size she can serve up a pretty hollow tube or 3 on the day.

Barra Da Tijuca Best Conditions
Swell direction: SSW to SSE
Swell size: 4-to-8 foot faces / 1-2+ m
Swell period: 8 to 13 seconds
Wind direction: NW to NE
Wind speed: 0-15 knots
Tides: mid (2 ft/.6 m) to high (4 ft/1.2 m)
Average Temp: 72F / 22C

Margaret River Pro Recap
The Drug Aware Pro was an amazing contest with good consistent surf throughout the waiting period.  We didn’t see any action out at The Box, much to the disappointment of surf fans. Finals day saw the Hawaiian injury replacement, Sebastian Zietz take down superstar Julian Wilson. What a feat for the Hawaiian who fell off tour just last year. However, on a side note I think Jules was robbed. Seabass surfed well, but in my opinion Julian outclassed the Hawaiian all day. The judging went off the rails when they scored Sebastian a 9.10 for basically one turn. A grab rail hack. It was a mighty turn packing lots of punch, but it just wasn’t excellent surfing in my eyes.  Julian was so precise, showing a varity of surfing with speed power and flow only to be lowballed on the scoring. But hey, I’m not a WCT judge. Moving on, Italo Ferreira has further cemented his place in the championship tours elite with a great event, making it into the Semi Finals and sitting 3rd in the world. World number 1 Matt Wilkinson also kept his form alive surfing into round 5. Joel Parkinson, the only veteran in the top 10, clawed his way up the ranks finding form and finishing with a semi final berth. Kelly Slater, Dusty Payne, Davey Cathels and recent retiree Taj Burrow all had sub par events with round 2 & 3 exits. 2016 is by far one of the craziest years on tour I’ve seen. Lets keep the crazy train going.

Ins and Outs
Out: Owen Wright - Head          
Out: Bede Durbidge - Pelvis
Out: Mick Fanning - Hiatus
Out: Taj Burrow - Retiement
In: Stu Kennedy
In: Adam Melling
In: Sebastian Zeitz
In Leonardo Fioravanti

WIldcards
The wildcards have not yet been announced.

Offical Surfline Forecast

Brief Overview:  Fun size, decreasing S swell prevails on Tuesday, with small leftovers by Wednesday and Thursday. Shorter period S swell looks likely to rebuild for the end of the week and potentially peak over the weekend to offer more contestable surf.

Get your beach break and aerial specialists stacked for Rio madness! Im not going to lie, FS has been nearly impossible to pick this year. I had a pretty lack luster Margies event but scrapped through by picking Julian. Rio is going to be a whole different ball game. Lets break it down.

Tier A: Tier A is always going to conjure up some good points, but pick your surfers wisely and you’ll come out on top. Here, I like Julian. Jules found his mojo in West Aus after a pretty woeful first 2 events. Being the well rounded surfer he is, Julian can preform well in just about anything. Cool calm and collected with his mojo on, this kid will bring home the bacon. Italo Ferriera and Jordy Smith are your other two smart picks. Italo will be on his home turf and out to dominate, Jordy on the other hand, well we haven’t seen the big man surf this good in a long time. Whatever he’s doing at the moment seems to be working for him.  Not to mention he has won here in the past.

Other Tier A Options: Italo Ferriera and Matt Wilkinson

Tier B: If you don’t have these picks on point your team WILL crumble. Tier B has a lot of talent and some great picks. My first no-brainer is Filipe Toledo (duh). The kid is a deadset wizard in the small beach break stuff (and father to be!) He’s the defending champ. Lock it in. I think Josh Kerr has something to prove in Brazil. With a lack luster Australian leg he’s going to come out firing. Josh also has a bag full of ariel tricks to boot.  Gabriel Medina. The home town hero. You can count on him putting on a show and racking up some quality points.  His hunger to win combined with his cat like skills and consistency will pay off.  John John Florence. Raw talent and a past event winner (2012).  If he strings together a few heats and doesn’t

Tier C: The bottom of the barrel can put you way ahead of the field with the right picks. Try these guys on for size for maximum points. Kelly Slater. SAY WHAT?! How can the king be in the bottom of the barrel.  We all know his start to the season has been horrible, hence why we see him here. Kelly has all the tricks of the trade to do well. Question is, will he be motivated?? Im taking a gamble and saying yes. Jack Freestone is back. Jack is a passion pick for me. (No not because he clogs my insta feed with photos of Alana.B).  But becasue he’s slugged it out in for a long time in the junky beach breaks of the WQS. You do the math.

Other Tier C Options: Matt Banting

Dark Horse: Connor Coffin.

The World Title Race Check-in
After the Australian leg, this years World Title race is shaping up to be an absolute scorcher, given the current trends and CT ranks. Matt Wilko is still holding onto the top spot. Sebastian Seitz who didn’t even make the tour this year is number 2 in the world. The title right now is Wilko’s to loose. He’s a good 5000-10000 points ahead of the top ten. However it’s still early days and the back half of the year will tell an unscripted story.

Past Rio Pro Champions
2015: Filipe Toledo (BRA)
2014: Michel Bourez (PYF)
2013: Jordy Smith (ZAF)
2012: John John Florence (HAW)
2011: Adriano de Souza (BRA)
2001: Trent Munro (AUS)
2000: Kalani Robb (HAW)

Summery
Will Seabass and Julian keep their momentum going into Brazil? Will Matt Wilkinson keep that engine chugging? Will the Brazilian Storm hit as forecast? Or will we see it all get turned on its head? Get in the passion pit, wave your flag and cheer on your favourite surfers as they do battle in Brazil!

Event kicks off May 10th.

Mens Round 1 Heat Draw
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo, Conner Coffin, Adam Melling
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina, Michel Bourez, Jack Freestone
Heat 3: Julian Wilson, Kanoa Igarashi, Alex Ribeiro
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira, Stu Kennedy, Leonardo Fioravanti
Heat 5: Matt Wilkinson, Kai Otton, TBA
Heat 6: Adriano De Souza, Davey Cathels, TBA
Heat 7: Nat Young, Josh Kerr, Ryan Callinan
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson, Kelly Slater, Alejo Muniz
Heat 9: Jordy Smith, Wiggolly Dantas, Matt Banting
Heat 10: Jeremy Flores, Adrian Buchan, Keanu Asing
Heat 11: Kolohe Andino, John John Florence, Jadson Andre
Heat 12: Sebastian Zietz, Caio Ibelli, Miguel Pupo

Awesome event breakdown, @saltyseadog!

Time to check my fantasy picks…

Ins and Outs 2.0
With Joel Parkinson and Kai Otton pulling out of the Oi Rio Pro both on personal reasons (Joel actually has been getting shacked at The Mad Hueys Komune Bali Pro at Keramas), this has paved a way for Dusty Payne and Bino Lopes to cause some serious upsets. Dusty is current world #35 after 2 events, while Bino is the highest ranked Brazilain surfer on the WQS.

We also seem to think the reason behind Joel and Kai pulling out of Rio is due to the water quality of Brazil, after a few CT surfers fell ill after last years event. Not to mention the Zika virus epidemic.

Can you really blame them for not turning up? No, no you can’t

The new mens round 1 heat draw is listed below.

Oi Rio Pro Men’s Round 1 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA), Michel Bourez (PYF), Alex Ribeiro (BRA)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Kanoa Igarashi (USA), Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS), Stuart Kennedy (AUS), Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA), Davey Cathels (AUS), Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 5: Matt Wilkinson (AUS), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Bino Lopes (BRA)
Heat 6: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Jadson Andre (BRA), TBD
Heat 7: Nat Young (USA), Conner Coffin (USA), Jack Freestone (AUS)
Heat 8: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Josh Kerr (AUS), Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 9: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Kelly Slater (USA), Ryan Callinan (AUS)
Heat 10: Kolohe Andino (USA), Wiggolly Dantas (BRA), Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 11: Sebastian Zietz (HAW), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Matt Banting (AUS)
Heat 12: Caio Ibelli (BRA), John John Florence (HAW), Keanu Asing (HAW)

Round 2 of the Mens kicked off yesterday in fine style producing some history making surfing. More on that in a moment.

World number 1 Matt Wilkinson was outdone by local Brazilian wildcard Deivid Silva, Wilko has now picked up his first throw away score for the season. Julian Wilson was also out surfed by close friend and rival Dusty Payne.

The rookies contined to stamp their dominace with Jack Freestone picking up is first CT heat win, Matt Banting, Stu Kennedy and Kaona Igarashi all survived their sudden death round 2 heats.

I did mention that the history books were re-written, by none other than Gabriel Medina. Gabs pulled a double grab-back flip punt in his round 2 heat which earned him perfect 10 across the board from the judges.

What a freak.

Medinas Perfect Backflip

Round Two Results:
Heat 1: A. de Souza 13.00, B. Lopes 4.96
Heat 2: D. Silva 14.73, M. Wilkinson 14.50
Heat 3: D. Payne 13.93, J. Wilson
Heat 4: G. Medina 19.40, A. Ribeiro 7.90
Heat 5: J. Freestone 14.57, J. Flores 11.77
Heat 6: M. Banting 14.76, K. Andino 14.66
Heat 7: S. Zietz 14.33, K. Asing 11.86
Heat 8: C. Ibelli 10.73, J. Andre 10.67
Heat 9: M. Pupo 13.30, A. Buchan 11.73
Heat 10: S. Kennedy 14.17, W. Dantas 11.44
Heat 11: K. Igarashi 15.33, J. Kerr 13.27
Heat 12: M. Bourez 13.50, C. Coffin 11.74

Round Three Match-ups:
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo vs. Leonardo Fioravanti
Heat 2: John John Florence vs. Alejo Muniz
Heat 3: Nat Young vs. Dusty Payne
Heat 4: Caio Ibelli vs. Ryan Callinan
Heat 5: Stuart Kennedy vs. Davey Cathels
Heat 6: Adriano de Souza vs. Lucas Silveira
Heat 7: Italo Ferreira vs. Marco Fernandez
Heat 8: Kanoa Igarashi vs. Miguel Pupo
Heat 9: Sebastian Zietz vs. Adam Melling
Heat 10: Jordy Smith vs. Jack Freestone
Heat 11: Michel Bourez vs. Matt Banting
Heat 12: Gabriel Medina vs. Deivid Silva

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