Merewether surfer Morgan Cibilic claimed a heat victory to start the latest Challenger Series (CS) event in Portugal on the right foot as he fights to remain in touch with the top rankings.
Cibilic, last year's world No.5 and rookie of the year, currently sits 19th on the CS - the tier below the Championship Tour (CT) - and needs a big result at the Ericeira Pro to give himself a chance of re-qualifying for next year's CT.
On day two of the event, the 22-year-old advanced to the round of 48 after scoring 11.27 for his two best waves in a four-man heat featuring South Africa's Joshe Faulkner (8.87), America's Tyler Gunter (8.44) and Brazil's Alex Ribeiro (7.50).
Cibilic only surfed three waves but scores of 6.50 and 4.77 were enough to progress to the next round where he will face Lucas Silveira (Brazil), Shun Murakami (Japan) and Mikey McDonagh (Australia) in heat 10.
Fellow Merewether surfer Ryan Callinan, who surfed on day one, is up against Peterson Crisanto (Brazil), Marco Giorgi (Uruguay) and Dylan Moffat (Australia) in heat four.
The next call for the competition to resume is at 6pm on Tuesday (AEDT).
In the women's event, Redhead-based South African Sarah Baum posted a day-best total of 14.07 to comfortably win her round-of-64 heat.
The experienced goofy-footer, who scored 8.00 on her first wave, said she felt at home on her backhand at the Ribeira D'ilhas break.
"I had such a hard time here last year trying to get waves and understand the wave," she said.
"So I'm stoked to start my heat with an eight this time, I just found my rhythm and had a lot of fun.
"I prefer surfing on my backhand so I'm enjoying this.
"There is a little bit of a flat section in the wave and you can't force it, you just have to wait for the wave to stand up again."
Merewether's Philippa Anderson also progressed to the round of 32 after finishing second in her heat with a total score of 10.90.
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