RIBEIRA D'ILHAS/Ericeira, Portugal (Tuesday, October 19, 2010) - The Quiksilver Pro Portugal and Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) sanctioned Men's Star Series event kicked off on day one of the official waiting period with 14 heats of Round One completed at the point break of Ribeira D'Ilhas is clean long peeling rights.

The swell was in the 2-3ft (1m) range with the occasional bigger set pushing down the point. With large tides at the moment a halt was called to proceedings and another afternoon session saw the level of performance surfing increase.

Josh Kerr (Gold Coast, AUS) 26, fresh from his victory last week in Canada arrived this morning at Ericeira and after a quick nap, ignited during his heat to score a massive two wave heat total of 18.53. On borrowed boards and feeling good to be back in the water, his opening 9.00 ride shook off any jetlag he may have been feeling and left him in a situation to relax and look for his back up scores.

"I flew over here from Canada and didn't get a wink of sleep. During the break we had at high tide I had a sleep and then straight into it. I am still a bit dazed and confused but it was good to get into the water and feel water on my hands and feet instead of having boots on."

With another excellent score and finishing off with a near perfect 9.53 out of 10 Kerr is on a roll and with the long right-hand point break so similar to his home on the Gold Coast will be hard to beat.

"It would definitely be good if I am there at the end with the other top seeds and we can have some really good heats going into the semis and final. That's what I am here for is to try and make the final so see how it goes."

"I'm stoked right now actually," continued Kerr. "I was lucky the waves came to me in that heat and pretty much just had a free surf. I went out thinking of getting an early score and there were plenty of sets and no hassling because it was 4 wave sets and everyone was getting a piece of it."

Surfers competing in the Quiksilver Pro Portugal are out to claim valuable ASP World Ranking points in their endeavour to qualify for next year's elite ASP World Tour. European surfers are on stop nº 10 of 12 in their bid to claim this year's European Men's Title which is currently being lead by Marc Lacomare (FRA).

First-call will be at 07:15 for a possible 07:30 start with heat nº 15 of Round One of the Quiksilver Pro Portugal.

For all results, videos, daily highlights, photos and news log-on to www.aspeurope.com

Quiksilver Pro Portugal Round1 Results Heat 1: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 14.03, Chris Salisbury (AUS) 12.93, Thiago Guimaraes (BRA) 9.63, Aecio Flavio 7.73 Heat 2: Dede Suryana (IDN) 13.83, Francisco Alves (PRT) 8.33, Igor Munian (EUK) 0.00, Francisco Cruz 0.00 Heat 3: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 12.90, Romain Cloitre (FRA) 12.26, Chance Lawson (USA) 9.44, Robertson Goncalves (PRT) 6.34 Heat 4: Hodei Collazo (EUK) 16.84, Nic von Rupp (DEU) 13.96, Tyler Newton (USA) 13.83, Luis Eyre (GBR) 6.86 Heat 5: Justin Mujica (PRT) 12.50, Leonardo Neves (BRA) 9.20, Ryah Arthur (USA) 2.60, Ruben Gonzalez (PRT) ns Heat 6: Adrien Toyon (REU) 14.17, Alexandre Ferreira (PRT) 11.50, Paulo Almeida (PRT) 6.86, Ruda Carvalho (BRA) ns Heat 7: Abdel El Harim (MAR) 12.27, Charlie Brown (BRA) 9.40, Marcos San Segundo (EUK) 8.40, Tristan Guilbaud (FRA) 7.46 Heat 8: Brandon Jackson (ZAF) 16.50, Frederic Robin (REU) 13.50, Gregory Weatherall (NZL) 6.86, Basile Belime (PRT) 5.10 Heat 9: Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY) 14.17, Romain Laulhe (FRA) 12.34, Adrien Valero (FRA) 10.43, Joao Pinheiro 8.23 Heat 10: Eneko Acero (EUK) 14.67, Beto Mariano (BRA) 10.50, Alexander El Naib (DEU) 2.33, Goncalo Paula 2.00 Heat 11: Alan Stokes (GBR) 12.43, Demitri Ouvre (FRA) 11.17, Davey Cathels (AUS) 9.04, Jules Thomet 9.03 Heat 12: Pablo Paulino (BRA) 14.50, Joao Antunes (PRT) 12.90, Nuno Silva (PRT) 9.40, Omer Bar (ISR) 7.13 Heat 13: Josh Kerr (AUS) 18.53, Noboyuki Osawa (JPN) 11.83, Medi Veminardi (REU) 11.00, Joackim Petersen Guichard (NOR) 10.14 Heat 14: Klee Strachan (ZAF) 13.37, Marlon Lipke (DEU) 12.76, Pierre-Valentin Laborde (FRA) 12.57, Simon Marchand (FRA) 12.50