Margaret River Pro 2025: Day 3

Eight heats, being the entirety of the Men's Round of 16, run today. Six contested in glorious 6 foot+ surf at the Box with a further two concluded at 6-10 foot Mainbreak.

For some reason I find hard to fathom, tube-riding at the highest level has become polarising amongst the core surf audience. Some claim running heats at the Box (not the entire comp!) is boring, it leads to non-competitive heats, not enough happens, and other complaints which I've forgotten.

Early morning Box (WSL/Ryder)

I don't want to mis-characterise those who hold these views which are contrary to my own (my boss is amongst them!) but allow me the pleasure to rebut them by strolling through the highlights of today's six heats held there today.

At Bells, Burleigh, and Mainbreak you can roam up and down the lineup to a large extent. Positioning is measured in metres or even tens of metres. Any reasonably competent surfer left to his or her own devices out there will rack up a wave count. There's no such luxury at the Box. Positioning has to be accurate to within feet or inches, to use the old imperial terms. We saw that immediately in the opening heat. Mikey McDonagh took the inside and held it off Griff. Straight away he was too deep and off the ledge to takeoff. Griff picked up a nugget from right under his nose for an expertly ridden 7.

Mikey tried to answer back but failed to exit a minor ride.

Griff (WSL/Miers)

Griff had to pin drop out of a set before nailing a back-up 5.83 and then appeared in cruise control. He sat further out, likely as a decoy to drag Mikey off the button. When Griff paddled into the wave of the heat he wasn't quite behind it so snap/stalled into it. The tube roared over him and the foamball picked up his board and drove it sideways. He was travelling sideways in the tube, invible looking straight into it. The wave spat its guts out all over the channel and Griff was disgorged, like a newborn foal floppy with joy. He later said the sideways tuberide had “baffled myself” and that the thirty minutes at the Box was the “best heat of my life”. 

I would offer for the defence of the Box that overwhelming sense of unpredictability - where some incredible tuberide that baffles even the best surfers on the planet can simply pop up out of nowhere at any minute of the heat.

Leo (WSL/Miers)

Jake Paterson in a rare appearance in the booth said you needed “balls of steel” to catch a wave at the Box. I'm sure ovaries of iron or some other gender-specific term would equally apply. All twelve surfers acquitted themselves in that respect. Leo Fioravanti broke his back at Pipe, dislocated his shoulder on the morning of the last time heats were run at the Box in 2019. He had every rational reason to show caution and be extremely calculating. He did not. He started the heat with four vicious wipeouts, any one of which could have led to serious, season-ending injuries. He finally found the exit on two below sea level beasts to get past Miggy Pupo who unlocked the key to the backhand attack.

He said later the wave was extremely scary but he was able to unlock in his mind a “go for it” mode and override the fear.

Miggy (WSL/Miers)

No-one piked out like we saw at previous Box days, most notably when Jack Robinson used Toledo as a priority buoy.

Courage has become a disvalued trait, bundled up with toxic masculinity as something that is counter to civilised society. Regardless, it's still part of the skill set required to swing under the axe and send it on a dredging slab with a hungry reef gurgling and draining below.

We can test the men for this trait but there seems more of a reluctance to admit its requirement for the women - who feel exactly the same fear as men. A thought for a different time, as women will not get to surf the Box. Perhaps a thought to be revisited at Teahupoo.

Jake (WSL/Miers)

I thought being a goofy-footer would be a massive disadvantage today. Connor O'Leary, more than decade removed from his slab-filled Cronulla domicile, quickly made me retract those words.

Local knowledge and experience was clearly a factor. Where to sit, what waves to look for, how to find an exit when the bottom dropped out. All that mattered. So, equally, did attitude and where you grew up. All the little sharp angles required on paddle-in and wave entry - sometimes the chip in required a surfer to angle left on the paddle in before shifting rails on the chip section before the slab proper. Only growing up surfing slabs puts those reads into a surfer's unconscious repertoire.

In the lexicon of academic discourse which has built up around sports performance they frame it as: “Perceptual-cognitive processes of anticipation and decision-making are key skills linked to performance”. You have to anticipate and then make a decision in a split-second and the only way you get to that state is thousands of reps as a kid.

No question about Barron Mamiya's reps in hollow surf as a kid. Did you watch his heat today at the Box live?

No..?

I'm sorry for your loss. It was the most sublime display of heavy water tube-riding this year, apart from his Pipe Masters win.

Barron (WSL/Miers)

Now, be honest, how many good tubes have you ridden this year?

Barron rode more in one thirty-minute heat. He almost single-handedly justified the decision to hold a round at the Box. Tuberiding seems the most simple of surfing techniques. It's basically going straight. Mamiya showed that even at the CT standard there are levels to the game. Most natural footers careered down the face and squeezed themselves under a pitching lip. Mamiya slid in like a hand into a silk glove. If that glove was on an anvil about to have a ten tonne hammer dropped on it. By the time the hammer dropped Mamiya was already couched on the foamball, caressing his way to exits that seemed both incredibly casual and dramatic. He could have ridden a hundred waves out there for 99 makes. Most would be struggling to get a tenth of that make rate.

His preparation after not surfing the joint for years? He just went out in the channel and watched Jack Robinson go about his business this morning. Where he sat, what waves he caught, how he caught them, how he rode them. Then, with the tuberiding brain fed with the relevant data, he let his surfing instincts and skills do the rest.

Barron (WSL/Miers)

I don't know how that performance could be framed as boring. Yes, it was uncompetitive because he was so much better than the other guy in the heat (Jake Marshall).

Competitive heats make the most compelling viewing but on those rare occasions when a surfer establishes a meaningful gap between themselves and the rest of the field - JJF at Mainbreak in 2017 is the obvious example - we remember and applaud it with good reason. It’s exceptional. 

The only guy who could have challenged Barron today was sitting at home watching and no doubt rueing his woeful exit yesterday.

Woz would have screwed it up anyway with Jack scheduled for the last heat of the round. I do have to question whether they would have called it off with Jack Robinson about to surf the Box. Hold that thought.

Aussie wildcards have been kryptonite for Brazilian top fivers (and former top fivers) this Aussie Treble. Which augured well for Jacob Willcox in his match-up with Joao Chianca. We knew coming in Chianca loves to get ultra hassly and true to form he started with a paddle battle. That could have gone either way and after Chippo screwed up an easy make it looked like Chianca would get the advantage. Chianca packed a bomb. The foamball picked him up and for an inordinate amount time, he appeared to levitate in the tube before the trapdoor opened up and he fell to the bottom of the ocean.

Joao (WSL/Ryder)

As Chippo dryly noted in his post-heat presser, he makes that wave and its a 10. It's a different heat. But he didn't and it was Chippo getting the deep make for an excellent 8.17. Chippo getting the rub of the green, finally.

He said later, in reference that wave that he had “dreamt of that moment”. He admitted to the ups and downs of his career, where he's currently off the CT as “character building”, and said it had built a resilience in him so he wanted to keep pushing competitively. No doubt a certain amount of stoicism is now vital in the sponsorship-scarce world of pro surfing.

Unridden bombs stole the show in the Crosby Colapinto/Jackson Bunch heat to see who remains on tour. The wind was light and the tubes were round and as Jake Pato noted, the best waves were going unridden.

It had been a slow start to the morning - a waste of precious surf time at the Box. The 2019 day kicked off at 7.30 WST. Today's lollygagging meant heats did not start until after 8.

They'd run the remaining two heats at the Box and a long afternoon of surfing a rising swell at Mainbreak beckoned.

I can't imagine they'd pull those heats if Jack Robbo had been in one. It would be like cancelling a Frazier-Ali fight as they were making the walk to the ring. Just not conceivable.

It took over an hour to get started again at Mainbreak. The surf was glassy, just a light wind ruffle, with 8-10 foot sets. Big walls and bowls, perfect for power surfing with the tour's premium power surfer in the water. When you see a 200 pound bluefin tuna cut up by a Japanese big blade you're impressed by the precision and the cleanliness of the cuts and the size and obvious weight of the tuna loins as the chef liberates them from the impressive carcass. Watching Jordy hack into big blue Mainbreak engendered similar feelings of precision and power. Just like Mamiya at the Box with tuberiding he showed there are levels to the game. Mignot, was comboed for three-quarters of the heat and ended in that situation.

Jordy (WSL/Ryder)

Al Cleland paddled out and waited for a giant set that never came while Imai Devault sat in and ran roughshod over militant mid-rangers.

By the time the heat was over Al only managed to huck himself at the closeout on the bricks and destroy a board, and almost his body.

The lineup was beautifully backlit. Little zephyrs of wind were ruffling 8-10 foot sets on a building trend. There was three hours of light left. The mouth watered for any type of pro surfing. Women's Round of 16, Men's Quarters, whatever.

Pumping surf with a winter-calibre storm looming. And days of onshores ahead.

So, with that on the menu, the Woz called it off for the day.

No other sporting organisation on Earth seems quite so skilled at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

All they had to do was keep running heats until the sun went down.

// STEVE SHEARER

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Round of 16 Results:
HEAT 1: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 16.00 DEF. Mikey McDonagh (AUS) 2.43
HEAT 2: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 12.16 DEF. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 7.04
HEAT 3: Connor O'Leary (JPN) 8.50 DEF. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 2.50
HEAT 4: Barron Mamiya (HAW) 15.17 DEF. Jake Marshall (USA) 5.73
HEAT 5: Jacob Willcox (AUS) 12.50 DEF. Joao Chianca (BRA) 5.87
HEAT 6: Crosby Colapinto (USA) 6.53 DEF. Jackson Bunch (HAW) 3.34
HEAT 7: Jordy Smith (RSA) 17.33 DEF. Marco Mignot (FRA) 7.17
HEAT 8: Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 15.33 DEF. Alan Cleland (MEX) 8.26