Adriano de Souza on top of surfing world

Three, two, one.

Brazil's Adriano de Souza has completed a dominant Australian leg of the World Surf Tour with victory on Friday in the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia.

After a semi-final finish in the season-opening Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast and then coming runner-up to Mick Fanning at Bells Beach, de Souza went one better to claim his fifth world tour event title.

The 28-year-old, who began his Friday by eliminating local hope Taj Burrow in the semis, proved too strong for American John John Florence in clean conditions at Main Break.

De Souza scored an 8.93 and an 8.60 with his first two waves of the 40-minute final with the combined 17.53 out of 20 enough to hold off Florence, who nailed the highest-scoring wave of the final with a 9.00 but could only post a 16.87 two-wave score.

The victory means de Souza will head to next month's Rio Pro event in Brazil as the world's No.1, over 7500 points clear of three-time world champion Fanning with another Brazilian, Filipe Toledo, in third position.

After narrowly missing out to Fanning on a countback at Bells Beach, an emotional de Souza was understandably delighted to have picked up his first event win of the season.

"Just so happy. I came really motivated because after Bells, a tie in the final and I couldn't win the thing," he said.

"I'm really motivated this year and I feel I have to keep improving, keep up the hard work and it will definitely pay off."

Sunshine Coast product Julian Wilson is the only other Australian in the rankings top five heading to Brazil, with the Gold Coast runner-up fourth with 14,950 points.

The Rio Pro is scheduled to start on May 11.

Courtney Conlogue

Courtney Conlogue Margaret River Pro

Jay Davies took out World Champion Gabriel Medina.

TWO surfers who had never won a major heat in their lives took down two of the biggest names in surfing as a shark, the first perfect 10 and stunning barrels made an appearance at the Margaret River Pro on Thursday. 

After a day of carnage, day two of the world surf league event produced both shock losses and exceptional surf with Brazilian world champion Gabriel Medina and compatriot and world No. 1 Filipo Toledo both sent to the sidelines by relative unknowns.

Jay Davies took out World Champion Gabriel Medina.


The 25th, inflicted by local Jay Davies, is Medina’s worst result in 14 events and could be a death blow to his bid to defend the world crown he won last year.

The heat will also be one he remembers with a shark sliding past midway through the bout.

“We had shark cruise through the line-up which was a little sketchy, but it was only a baby one eating some fish,“ said local Davies.

“Gabriel saw it first and nearly jumped on my back.’’

Last year Kelly Slater set the social media world alight when he shared a video of a dark shadow passing over him as he surfed with many swearing it was a close encounter with a shark.

He later came clean, revealing it was in fact a fellow surfer.

Photo: WSL / Cestari


Medina was followed to the beach by inform surfer Filipe Toledo who had shared the world No. 1 ranking with Mick Fanning heading into the event.

Toledo was beaten by New Zealand tour rookie Ricardo Christie.

As the big names fell, Australian surfers shone with Owen Wright collecting the first perfect 10 of the event at The Box in his 18.50 to 10.90 defeat of Hawaiian Dusty Payne.

“The set came so I just went. After my10 I remember going, ‘give me more’. I just love it and I love waves like this,’’ he said.

One of the most popular victories of the day was Josh Kerr’s.

The Australia was the star of a massive wipe-out on day one but regrouped to beat American CJ Hobgood.