Gabriela Bryan, Jack Robinson Win Western Australia Margaret River Pro

The Western Australia Margaret River Pro has come to a close, with Jack Robinson and Gabriela Bryan emerging victorious. The final day of competition saw a series of explosive heats in standout conditions. It was big, it was clean, and the surfers brought their a-game. In short: It was everything you want in a CT event.

The women’s event came down to a final showdown between Sawyer Lindblad and Gabriela Bryan. The win was a first for Bryan on the Championship Tour, as well as a result she needed to keep her in the running for the back half of the season.

The final itself started off with a back and forth in the opening five minutes. Lindblad started with a solid 6.67 that put her in the lead, followed by Bryan cobbling together a 5.17 and 2.17 to jump ahead, after which Lindblad laid down a 3.00 second wave to regain her position. The surfing was solid, but no fireworks just yet.

Then, around the 21-minute mark, Bryan had a moment that really changed the tide – a standout 7.83 that far eclipsed anything we’d seen up to that moment and set the pace accordingly. For a bit of extra cinematic flair, Bryan also shared the wave with a pod of dolphins – an image that we’re sure to see in future highlight reels.

With the seeming approval of nature itself, Bryan proceeded to pull further away from Lindblad in the back half of the heat by upgrading her backup wave to a 6.67. Lindblad responded with a 7.27 that still wasn’t enough to get ahead. From there, things slowed down a bit, with the pair waiting for a moment to land a definitive final wave. In the end, it went to Bryan, who capped off the heat with 8.10 that was the highest scoring of the heat. Though it will no doubt be eclipsed by the dolphin wave in memory, that aggressive snap followed by a very late foam climb sure was an authoritative way to clinch a maiden CT victory.

“I don’t even know what to say, I’m so happy right now,” said Bryan in the post-heat interview. “It’s been a crazy day, crazy week. I’m just so grateful to get a win, especially when I needed it most. My back was against the wall coming into this.”

As she mentioned, Bryan’s win gave her a big jump on the leaderboard, rising five places to the number five slot and firmly in the safe zone for the mid-season cut. Sawyer’s number two finish was just as crucial, landing her the number ten slot and barely keeping her in the back half of the season. Overall, Caitlin Simmers still sits at the top of the rankings, followed close behind by Johanne Defay and Molly Picklum.

Speaking of the mid-season cut, the end of the Margaret river pro also means we’ll be saying goodbye to the second half of the leaderboard. The surfers eliminated from the second half of the 2024 CT season were Lakey Peterson, Luana Silva, Sally Fitzgibbons, Isabella Nichols, India Robinson, Alyssa Spencer, Sophie McCulloch and Carissa Moore (technically).

The men’s side closed with a rip-roaring face off between Jack Robinson and John John Florence. The two really seem to bring out the best in one other, as in the 2022 Margaret River Pro final, where Robinson similarly clinched the win. In the end, West Oz-local Robinson leveraged his home court advantage to once again cement his status as a CT giant slayer and Margies top dog.

The heat actually got off to a big, but relatively low-scoring start. Robinson rode a few spectacular-looking waves that he wasn’t able to stick the landings on, which kept him off of the board in the opening minutes. Things then started to ramp up with Florence scoring a 4.33 that was quickly overshadowed by a 6.50 from Robinson, and then answered by a 7.17 from Florence. With that volley, things were most definitely underway.

The standout moment of the men’s heat was a 9.10 from Robinson. He pulled off a huge opening carve and capped it with a slam into the lip, on what Kaipo Guerrero described as possibly the biggest wave of the competition. However, he wasn’t content to stop there. Immediately afterwards, Robinson took off on another monster, where he landed a huge double-grab punt, followed by a wrapping cutback and two more turns for good measure. That ride landed him an 8.17 and the lead for the rest of the heat.

With another half to go, Florence went on the offensive, seemingly on the hunt for a 10. However, the closest he managed to get was a full-rotation air-reverse that earned an 8.77. In another heat, it could have been the standout wave, but not this one. By the time the clock hit zero, neither surfer managed to top Robinson’s mid-heat heroics.

“Déjà vu! Man, what a moment,” said Robinson afterwards. “That was a good final, eh? I was really looking forward to that and [John John] fired me up so much. Look forward to many more heats with him. John’s incredible out here. Wouldn’t want anyone else in the final with me.”

The result pushed Robinson up to number two spot in the rankings, with John John Florence right behind him in third. Overall, Griffin Colapinto remains number one, and the rest of the top ten was relatively unchanged.

As far as the cut goes, of the three surfers below the cut line who were still in the competition, Samuel Pupo, Miguel Pupo and Caio Ibelli, none managed to perform well enough to make it. Connor O’Leary and Yago Dora, who were presumably praying from the sidelines that their opponents would fail enough to keep them in safety, had their prayers answered and now occupy the 21 and 22 rank, respectively. The full list of men’s surfers who were cut is: Samuel Pupo, Ian Gentil, Caio Ibelli, Miguel Pupo, Kade Matson, Jacob Willcox, Frederico Morais, Callum Robson, Eli Hanneman, Kelly Slater, Deivid Silva, Joao Chianca and Filipe Toledo (technically).

With that, we’re off to a much leaner and meaner second half of the season. Next up is the Tahiti Pro at Teahupo’o. It’s an event that’s sure to draw a lot of eyeballs, not only for the barreling nightmare on which the surfers will compete, but also because it will be a sort of dress rehearsal for the upcoming Olympic games. We’ll see how it all goes down in May.

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