Finals Day at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal was dramatic and exciting to the very end, making for an incredible day of professional surfing. The men’s final between Griffin Colapinto and Gabriel Medina was on fire from the first exchange and only got better from there. In the end, though, Griff emerged victorious in a win for the ages.
Halfway through the heat, the score was basically tied, with Gabriel just barely out front, 15.87 to Griff’s 15.74. Not one to sit idle, Gabriel upped the ante with a super deep barrel ride that didn’t seem like it would let him out. He emerged to roars from the crowd, bringing his total to 16.77.
Griff fired right back with an even deeper ride that he saw through all the way to the very inside, barely emerging from the doggy door, and the judges rewarded him with a 9.43. Griff’s jaw-dropper pushed his total to 17.6, and all the pressure was on Gabriel. He answered with a deep ride that looked like a solid score, then punted out of the barrel into what was the largest air of the whole event, aided by the strong offshore winds. He flew 6 to 7 feet above the wave but couldn’t find the landing. In the end, it wasn’t enough, and it was a well-deserved win for Griff.
The women’s final was the matchup everyone wanted. Molly Picklum edged Caitlin Simmers 13.33 to 12.84 to win back-to-back Portugal titles and take the yellow jersey to Cloud 9. Simmers found a barrel late in the heat that would have flipped the result, but she couldn’t find a clean exit, and the score never came.
The semifinals, run on the event’s fourth day, set the finals. Simmers beat Bettylou Sakura Johnson 11.33 to 10.26 in a heat decided by a single barrel, while Picklum beat Lakey Peterson 8.63 to 7.40 in a frantic 40 minutes. On the men’s side, Gabriel Medina topped Italo Ferreira 11.67 to 10.10 in an all-Brazilian semifinal, and Griffin Colapinto posted a 14.33 to beat Yago Dora’s 8.83.
Competition resumed Tuesday with the quarterfinals. Picklum ended Erin Brooks’ historic winning streak, and Peterson ended Portuguese wildcard Teresa Bonvalot’s run on home soil. For the men, Ferreira beat another Portuguese wildcard, Guilherme Ribeiro, and Dora scored an 8.67 to send Ethan Ewing home. Colapinto surged late with a 9.00 to survive Seth Moniz, and Medina rallied past Morgan Cibilic.
Day 2 was the opposite of the opening day. Rippy, sideshore closeouts and a strong rip made for a scrappy two-heat day. Johnson won the first women’s quarterfinal 7.43 to 7.34 over Portugal’s Francisca Veselko, then Simmers delivered the standout heat of the event so far, beating Carissa Moore 11.50 to 8.93 with a pair of backside air attempts.
It all started with a gift. The event opened to clean, sunny, 4 to 5 foot tubes at Supertubos, with 24 overlapping heats run on Day 1 in a trimmed field of 24 men and 16 women. Brooks beat Tatiana Weston-Webb 12.50 to 7.27, Picklum posted the day’s top women’s score, a 15.74, and Bonvalot upset Gabriela Bryan 11.40 to 10.93. On the men’s side, Filipe Toledo put up a 14.43 to beat Liam O’Brien, Jack Robinson posted a 13.33, and Ribeiro beat George Pittar to keep the home crowd loud.
It’s been a wild year thus far for the WSL and things are getting spicy going into the final stretch. Due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, instead of the wave pool event at Abu Dhabi, the crew heads to Cloud 9, in Siargao, Philippines for the last event before Pipeline.
Related: World Surf League Reveals Backup Event Amid Middle East Conflict