Here’s Everything You Didn’t See At The Meo Ripcurl Pro

After a dramatic six days of waiting period, The Meo Ripcurl Pro reached it’s climax on Tuesday, culminating with the crowning of John John Florence as both event winner and 2016 World Champ.

As ever, the WSL’s coverage was extensive. It featured plenty of slick behind the desk punditry, interspersed with highlight reels and of course regular updates featuring an apologetic Travis Logie telling everyone to check back in an hour or two as the Atlantic ocean was proving an uncooperative mistress.

However the frequency of lay days and delayed calls, mixed with Peniche’s coastal geography, which provides a variety of options all facing in different directions, made for sans-singlet surfboarding action a-plenty.

From crowded little shories to maxing Supertubes with only a few CTers out, there was something for everyone this week along Peniche’s long and winding coastline. So without further ado, let’s dive in to some highlights:

Gabriel Medina captures the attention of beach-goers with his trade-mark tail high air reverseTour rookie Alex Ribiero finds some shade at Supertubos.Kanoa Igarashi looks right at home on Supertubos playful ramps.An empty one rolls through on finals day. Leo Fioravanti throws an alley-oop up the coast from PenicheFelipe Toledo finds a foamy mutlti-coloured drainer as he kills time waiting for the next call. Alex Ribiero throws an air reverse into the flats before the first call. Italo Ferraria never holds back in free surfs, here he throws a massive tail high reverse, framed by Peniche's old town in the background. Adriano De Souza pulls into a bomb on the evening before finals day, if you look close enough you can just make out the bald head of Kelly Slater turning to enjoy the view as he duckdives through the face.Italo Ferraria blowing away the cobwebs one morning with a textbook straight air. Your new world champ JJF refining his small wave game. Ryan Callinan flying into the wind. Kelly Slater sneaks out of a pinchy drainer one gloomy evening at SupertubosFelipe Toledo completes a solid barrel-air combo with this lofty straight air. eremy Flores spins an alley-oop into the wind at Supertubos.A perfect empty unloads down the beach at Supertubes.

 

Here’s an edit from local surf media outlet SurfTotal, who spotted Kelly Slater, Leonardo Fioravanti, Sebastian Zietz and Jeremy Flores at an undisclosed location near Peniche enjoying some fun and uncrowded drainers:

And here’s a two part series from Mysurf.tv featuring an all-star cast attacking Portugal’s beach breaks. Featuring heavy hitters Jordy Smith, Julian Wilson, Josh Kerr, Sebastian Zietz and more:

 

And here’s the WSL’s own TourNotes, giving you an all access pass to check out what was going on within the bowels of the contest structure on finals day: