The third and final event of the Australian leg that annually kicks off the Championship Tour season is set to get underway as Tuesday opened the waiting period for the Margaret River Pro. A diminishing swell was likely to delay the start and prompt lay days for both Tuesday and today, but Thursday looks like a promising potential day one.
A pair of big names will be absent again, as both Kelly Slater and Courtney Conlogue have withdrawn due to injury. Each also missed the first two events of the year and as two of the most competitive surfers on the planet, it must be a devastating start to their 2018 mindset. Slater is obviously the most veteran member of either tour and he hasn’t really been in the world title race since 2014. His mentality appears to be getting fully healthy for the middle to late stages of the season, which features the inaugural Surf Ranch Open in September.
For Conlogue, this is a brutal beginning to her year. She finished runner-up in both 2015 and 2016 and had a chance at a world title going into the final contest of 2017. Starting her year with three throwaways and no points is going to put her squarely behind the eight ball. With the parity amongst the women’s roster, it’s unlikely that one wahine will run away with the points lead. But once she is back in the water, Conlogue basically has no room for error if she wants to be at all in the mix.
On the men’s side, the points lead is currently shared by Julian Wilson and Italo Ferreira. Wilson won the season opener at Snapper Rocks and Ferreira followed suit last week with his victory at Bells Beach.
Sebastian Zietz has an uphill battle after a pair of poor results to start the year (25th and 13th). But he’s at the right location to begin that climb. Margaret River is home to Zietz’s lone CT victory in 2016 and he’ll begin his journey against Ferreira and Michael Rodrigues in round one.
Zietz reached the fourth round last season and he has reached at least round four at Margaret River in each of the last three seasons. Getting to that point would be a good start to begin building some momentum as Seabass is currently tied for 26th in this very early stage of the season.
Also tied for 26th is John John Florence, who has had a pair of fairly shocking upsets so far. He’ll be going against Aussies Wade Carmichael and Mikey Wright in the opening round. Wright took Florence out on the Gold Coast, so that should be an interesting rematch.
Tatiana Weston-Webb is in fifth place on the women’s leaderboard after her runner-up finish at Bells Beach last week. The entire women’s division is extremely close, though everyone is currently chasing Stephanie Gilmore.
Weston-Webb has an interesting opener as she’ll face two-time world champ Tyler Wright, as well as Macy Callaghan, who will be replacing Conlogue in the draw. Tati hasn’t picked up a round one win yet in 2018 and this would certainly be a good one to get. Wright is likely to be focused after a third-round slip up at Bells has her in eighth for the year.
Malia Manuel is also likely to be eager for a rebound effort after a second-round loss to Tati at Bells has her in 10th for the season. She’ll take on Johanne Defay and Nikki Van Dijk in her opening heat.
Hopefully we get some great moments throughout the event, like the perfect 10 that Zietz attained two years ago on his way to the title. The ideal days appear to be Thursday, perhaps Friday and then the back end of the waiting period. It could be a lot packed into only a few sessions, but Australia usually provides and this is its final opportunity to do so in 2018.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
