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05/09/2005:// World champion Andy Irons scraped into round three of the Quiksilver Pro Japan after the Hawaiian missed a flight connection and arrived late for his opening heat.
Irons regained his composure at Shidashita narrowly beating Hideyoshi Tanaka on a countback decision.
Close World Championship Tour rival Kelly Slater was the stand-out in round one showing the red hot form that has taken him to six world titles.
Posting a 9.33 out of 10.0 on his top-scoring wave after executing a number of incredibly fast bottom-to-top turns, Slater put his stamp on the race for this year's world crown looking refreshed and confident after a holiday in Bali.
"I haven't surfed that much in the past couple of weeks," said Slater. "Sometimes I do that between events - just have a break. I was going to go to Fiji but I was worried that if I went there I might get too many good waves and not be motivated to surf here!"
Talking about the conditions, which vary radically from those of the last event in Jeffreys Bay, where he took a win in six to eight foot waves, Slater revealed he has the perfect war plan in place.
"Here you have to generate speed. At J-Bay everyone is going to get waves that they can surf really well on. Here it's usually the smaller guys who can generate the speed and stay in the pocket. You have to have different boards and have a different approach. You have to turn differently and you really have to pay attention to what the wave is going to let you do," said the Floridian.
Australian Tom Whitaker also indicated his eagerness to make a return to the "business end" of proceedings when he powered past Joel Parkinson, currently ranked five in the world title race, and Japan's Masatoshi Ohno, despite Whitaker's late arrival for the heat after being given misleading information.
Paddling out six minutes into the heat, Whitaker took advantage of the fact that his foes had yet to lock in some decent scores and he managed to scoop some rippable waves that enabled him to win and progress directly into round three.
"I was lucky because I had a good early surf out here this morning so I knew what I was doing," said Whitaker. "I was six minutes late for the heat due to some miscommunication and was a bit rattled but luckily no-one else had caught a wave by the time I paddled out. I scored a good one and was in a good rhythm from there."
Highest individual wave score of round one, a 9.6, went to flashy Brazilian Paulo Moura who blasted apart one of the bigger waves of the day and then kept up the momentum to win the heat in front of American Tim Reyes and Danny Wills, from Australia, was revelling in the conditions, which reminded him of home, and was very solid in what was easily the best heat of the day.
"I'm pretty happy with that wave and was lucky I chose a good one," said Moura. "It looked good and it was my first wave of the heat so I was stoked with the score. I'm feeling confident after getting a third in the WQS in France and maybe it helps that I surf similar waves to this back home in Brazil. I had a slow start to the year but now I feel relaxed and I'm sure good things will come from now on."
[Carissa Moore (in yellow) receiving the winner's prize]
[The number of high-rated Australian surf competitions are set to increase]
[Pablo Gutierrez winner of the Superbock Pro]
Hawaiian Carissa Moore won the Roxy Pro Junior surfing in her first ever contest in France
ASP International has announce the inception of their fourth regional branch, ASP Australasia
Twenty-six-year-old Pablo Guitierrez took top honours in the Superbock Pro in Portugal after defeating fellow Portugeuse surfer Eduardo Fernandes in the final
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