Margaret River Pro 2025: Day 2

Massive day of pro surfing at 8-12 foot Mainbreak Margs, with the Men's and Women's Elimination Rounds and entire Men's Round of 32 wrapped.

What seemed most remarkable, as the cut itself faces the cut, is how well and how accurately it worked. It's writing itself the most beautiful epitaph. Those under the line, by and large, bowed out, as seven sub-par results would suggest they should be. Only three from that netherworld are still alive. We'll get to them in a moment.

From being a so-so venue with only moderate interest, first John Florence in 2017 and now the cut has elevated Margs to one of the most exciting events on tour. At size, the thrills and spills factor adds in undeniable sado-masochistic spice to the viewing pleasure. Masochistic for anyone who has surfed the joint or similar reefs when sets break top to bottom on an outside ledge and you get demo-ed. Even jet-skis couldn't help pros caught in the vortex.

Jack (WSL/Ryder)

The series of shallow shelfs and ledges inside of the closeout convergence may be great cray hunting territory on those rare flat days, but they almost turned into a gravesite for Barron Mamiya when he got jammed under one after a brutal end section that looked like an inverted mushroom cloud. Barron disappeared under a tombstoning board where any pseudo-sadistic pleasure turned into a panic - where is he? Mamiya had the composure to remove his legrope and swim to freedom as the wave pressure subsided.

Any duty of care concerns regarding surfing the Box would seem to be made redundant if they are hucking themselves into massive closeout sections at the Mainbreak right with that kind of consequence awaiting.

Leo (WSL/Ryder)

The story of the Aussie Treble has been the story of rampaging wildcards putting to the sword any last vestiges of the myth of CT superiority. No-one can now say with a straight face that the top end of the CT has some kind of ultra-elite talent that puts them in rarefied air. Guys outside the CT: aspirants, retired dads, Changa journeymen working part-time jobs, have devastated top fivers in performance surf.

Mikey McDonagh surfed twice today, squeaking out of a tight Elimination Round heat when morning sickness on a building swell made any kind of half-decent ride at a premium. After a devastating 2024 when he failed to capitalise on winning the opening event at Snapper it was his composure that was stunning as he took down world No 2 Yago Dora. No sign of nerves or meltdowns as he went about his work, parlaying five attempts into two solid-scoring rides. McDonagh has a CT-level turn in the arsenal with variants on display and a big presence on a wave.

Mikey (WSL/Ryder)

Up against Griff in the next heat he'll need to maximise that presence and, if I were his coach, subtly use crowd control tactics to unsettle the very flappable Colapinto. Colapinto can be goaded into over-surfing if he feels under threat. Make him take risks he doesn't need to take and Mikey could claim another huge scalp.

What an Aussie Treble for Italo Ferreira. He came into it with an almost unbeatable aura. He's been sent back across the Pacific with his tail between his legs after getting soundly beaten early in every event by three different wildcards. In this instance it was Jacob Willcox who survived the first heat of the day with minimal damage to surf in Heat 9 in an overlapping format. Chippo's 8.33 belter sent Ferreira into a panic. You could almost see the wheels spinning in Italo's head: “Nao, de novo nao!”

Jacob (WSL/Miers)

Even for someone of Ferreira's skill, there's only a finite number of successful makes available hucking yourself at huge closeouts and Italo could not find one as the heat ticked down. Chippo through to the Round of 16 against a red hot Joao Chianca who has dragged himself out of danger with some huge wins.

The two women's ER heats had some charging. None moreso than local wildcard Willow Hardy who attempted arguably the biggest wave of the day on a bigger board. The wave had some big creases in it and with a front foot just off the centre line Hardy over-balanced and went down under a punishing lip.

Willow (WSL/Miers)

With seven minutes to go, Sally Fitzgibbon snaps a board, has to swim out the back to a ski, Bettylou catches a wave and navigates the inside shelf. Hardy is left out the back alone, needing less than a 4. We are informed that Sally has no more suitable boards left and is back out there on a 5'10”. The ocean goes quiet and in the dying stages Hardy can only climb onto the end of raggedy mid-sizer to hit the end section. Judges did not award the number and Sal squeaks through, by default.

How do pro surfers get caught so short? Their only job is to ensure they are prepared to show up with suitable equipment and ride whatever surf they are sent out in. It seems unfathomable to not be prepared, especially in the era of modern forecasting where you have at least a week of lead-time to get it together. Imagine a golfer showing up to the US Open and snapping a putter in some accident. They have no back-up and so have to putt with a 9 iron. It just wouldn't happen. Yet we saw the spectacle yesterday of pro surfers snapping 6'1's or whatever and grabbing even more unsuitable boards as back-up.

If pro surfing does ever go extinct the bone-headed actions of the pros themselves will have to be seen as a contributing factor.

Sally (WSL/Miers)

Everyone now above the cut line looks relatively safe except for Matty McGillivray and Alejo Muniz, with Cole Houshmand a much slimmer chance of being cut. A rampaging Crosby Colapinto looks the greatest threat to charge into the top 22 after taking out Ethan Ewing. Crosby's boards looked tiny and indecisive in his ER heat and similarly weak in the opening of the heat against Ewing. Ewing with a 6 and an 8 had the heat in perfect control, against a pair of 4's from Cros. Somehow Ewing managed to let Colapinto get the two best waves of the heat back to back and you couldn't deny the scores thrown at them. Thats another bad L for Ewing who also looked unstoppable coming into Australia.

There was a lot of metaphorical fairy floss thrown from the booth to losing surfers who were cut. Joe was at pains to affirm surfers would be on the Challenger and back on the CT in no time. That ignores the brutal reality of scrapping around in four-man heats, mostly in miserable onshore beachies scrapping for 5's against hungry opponents desperate to get a shot at the CT. Ryan Callinan will show at his homebreak of Newcastle. Will he leave a new baby to fly thousands of miles to surf crappy waves in Huntington or Portugal or Brazil? That is no-one's idea of how to employ your surfing talents at the back end of a career.

Ethan (WSL/Ryder)

Liam O'Brien still has much to give but he also has a deferred engineering degree to consider and a lifetime of potential high-earnings working a real job. How many good years in your prime do you give to the Challenger Series, barring reform into something more palatable?

The surf started to smooth right out into the latter stages of the day, still with massive sets. After a dismal showing from Toledo, there was chatter he had thrown the heat to avoid a possible confrontation with the Box. The slab where he was humiliated by then wildcard Jack Robinson in 2019. The last day competition was held there.

I find that assertion both implausible and improbable, especially when contrasted with the almost inexplicable meltdown from defending Champ Jack Robinson in the final heat of the day.

Both just had complete shockers.

Jack went looking for barrels that weren't there, neglected to find scoring rides that opponent Imai Devault caught at will. Robinson seemed to be caught in some kind of slab mindset after surfing the Box, which did not translate to Mainbreak.

The ultimate illustration of that was in the closing five minutes with Robinson needing a 9. He slow paddled into a Mainbreak peak, ostensibly to position himself under the lip. The peak quivered then threw out and Jack was caught in the lip and forced to pin drop out of it. When was the last time we saw Jack Robinson fail to make the drop? It was an inexplicable error and the heat was over. The best guy ever at the Box will not be there to compete if they run there today.

Sayonara and good luck to the guys chopped who now face the prospect of the Challenger or a real job. You're gonna need it.

// STEVE SHEARER

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Elimination Round Results:
HEAT 1: Jacob Willcox (AUS) 11.03 DEF. Barron Mamiya (HAW) 9.24, Ryan Callinan (AUS) 8.20
HEAT 2: Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 12.50 DEF. Winter Vincent (AUS) 11.64, Seth Moniz (HAW) 7.76
HEAT 3: Ian Gentil (HAW) 14.33 DEF. Mikey McDonagh (AUS) 10.90, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 8.37
HEAT 4: Crosby Colapinto (USA) 10.00 DEF. Edgard Groggia (BRA) 9.50, Deivid Silva (BRA) 8.93

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Women’s Elimination Round Results:
HEAT 1: Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) 8.84 DEF. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 8.33, Willow Hardy (AUS) 7.97
HEAT 2: Erin Brooks (CAN) 11.50 DEF. Lakey Peterson (USA) 10.27, Nadia Erostarbe (EUK) 4.47

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Round of 32 Results:
HEAT 1: Mikey McDonagh (AUS) 12.77 DEF. Yago Dora (BRA) 11.30
HEAT 2: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 10.97 DEF. Cole Houshmand (USA) 9.90
HEAT 3: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 17.13 DEF. Ian Gentil (HAW) 13.60
HEAT 4: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.27 DEF. George Pittar (AUS) 11.83
HEAT 5: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 13.16 DEF. Winter Vincent (AUS) 7.93
HEAT 6: Connor O'Leary (JPN) 14.37 DEF. Liam O'Brien (AUS) 13.33
HEAT 7: Jake Marshall (USA) 12.76 DEF. Samuel Pupo (BRA) 10.10
HEAT 8: Barron Mamiya (HAW) 13.54 DEF. Ian Gouveia (BRA) 13.06
HEAT 9: Jacob Willcox (AUS) 15.00 DEF. Italo Ferreira (BRA) 12.87
HEAT 10: Joao Chianca (BRA) 13.93 DEF. Matthew McGillivray (RSA) 10.87
HEAT 11: Jackson Bunch (HAW) 9.13 DEF. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 7.56
HEAT 12: Crosby Colapinto (USA) 16.00 DEF. Ethan Ewing (AUS) 14.33
HEAT 13: Jordy Smith (RSA) 12.50 DEF. Edgard Groggia (BRA) 8.53
HEAT 14: Marco Mignot (FRA) 13.67 DEF. Joel Vaughan (AUS) 12.80
HEAT 15: Alan Cleland (MEX) 13.40 DEF. Rio Waida (INA) 10.50
HEAT 16: Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 14.33 DEF. Jack Robinson (AUS) 11.33