All the Wright moves
@EmmaGreenwood12 in December 2015, Wright could be excused for carrying some nerves into the event.
Instead, he emerged from his Round 1 heat against Leonardo Fioravanti and Ezekiel Lau a winner after notching one of the rides of the day in 2-2.5m conditions.
Wright failed to find his way out of the barrel on a couple of occasions, but as he has done all year, built into the event and found a way to get things done in the end.
“That’s been my theme this year: Build,” Wright said.
“I caught a few to start with – one I wasn’t deep enough, and then I went a little too deep and I finally found the spot on the last one and snuck under the lip and snuck through there.
“That was nice to have a first heat back at Fiji again, it felt good.”
Wright’s win allows him to skip the knockout Round 2 and he will head to Round 3, where he hopes to make the most of the outstanding swell forecast.
“I hope (there’s a chance for a perfect 10), we’ve got the swell forecast for it and if the lines clean up a little bit (it could be possible),” he said.
Mick Fanning also progressed to Round 3 after winning through his super heat against fellow Gold Coaster Bede Durbidge and 11-time world champ Kelly Slater.
“This is the fourth time (Slater and Fanning) have met this year,” Fanning said of the pair’s unusually early match-ups given their lower than usual rankings.
“I don’t know how long we’re going to be on tour, so we’ll get as many heats as we can with each other.”
Slater now heads into a knockout Round 2 clash against North Stradbroke rookie Ethan Ewing, who is yet to win a heat in his maiden year on tour.
Gold Coasters Joel Parkinson, Jack Freestone and Durbidge, Tweed’s Josh Kerr and Lennox Head’s Stuart Kennedy are also in knockout contests in Round 2.
Earlier yesterday, Courtney Conlogue won the Fiji Women’s Pro, with the event window extended until yesterday due to flat conditions late last week. Tyler Wright holds the tour leader’s yellow jersey but Conlogue is the only woman to have won more than one event so far this season.