Wow,  the Moche Rip Curl Pro was intense!  We saw some very unexpected results with ratings leaders Mick Fanning and Adriano de Souza eliminated in R3,  Julian Wilson and Owen Wright out even earlier in R2 and Gabriel Medina unable to capitalize with a QF loss (moving up only one spot).  The biggest jumps were Joel Parkinson (+5 to 13th),  event winner Filipe Toledo (+4th),  and PRT runner-up Italo Ferreira (+2 to 6th).  This makes for a very interesting World Title race heading into the Pipe Masters.

The top 3 are separated by a mere 450 points,  which means Fanning,  de Souza,  and Toledo control their own destiny;  each can win the Title with a victory at Pipe.  For 4th place Gabriel Medina,  he’ll have to win Pipe,  but Mick,  Adriano and Toledo all must fall at 5th or worse.  We’d say it’s unlikely to have the top seeds out early,  but it literally just happened.

Our Tier A Trap Filipe Toledo won the event,  but we also outlined the possibility for his success if the conditions ended up choppy – which they did.  Our Tier A Sleeper was Italo Ferreira.  Looks like almost no one took our advice as he was drafted by 0% of teams(!),  bunch of crazies!   Where else did we nail it?  Our LOCK,  Jeremy Flores,  led Tier B in points (at 6%  started – thank you very much)  and John John Florence,  who we outlined as high risk/low potential,  blew it again.  We’re excited for the 3-4 man Title decision,  it will make for a very dramatic finale at the Pipe Masters.

While you’re waiting for our Hawaii Research Tools,  here is a sortable table for how everyone performed at Portugal.  Italo Ferreira was the best value pick (due to his #1 ranked AHS and 0 start percentage – still shocked about that). 

Men's Portugal Recap Table