(Reuters) – Young Californian surfer Griffin Colapinto won his first World Championship Tour event, taking out Brazil’s Filipe Toledo in the final of the MEO Pro Portugal in clean head-high waves on Monday.
Tatiana Weston-Webb turned the tables for Brazil in the women’s division, triumphing over California’s Lakey Peterson in the third event of the 10-stop world tour.
“Honestly, I just had so much fun out there, like it was really fun,” Weston-Webb said. “Lakey and I had such a great battle back and forth, I was really stoked just to be out there.”
Weston-Webb was a standout throughout the competition, overcoming Hawaii’s reigning world and Olympic champion Carissa Moore in their semi-final.
Having finished second in the world to Moore last year, Weston-Webb had struggled in the first two events of the year in her adopted homeland of Hawaii and needed a strong result ahead of the Australia leg that kicks off at Bells Beach next month.
“For me, the beginning of the year was such a bad start and its actually at two venues I thought I was going to do really well at,” she said. “So for me I was ‘OK, I know God has a plan, trust in it, keep surfing and trying my best’.”
While the waves at the break of Supertubos in Peniche had dropped off from Sunday’s heaving barrels it is famous for, there was still enough power on offer from the shallow sandbar for the surfers to showcase their skills.
No-one could have been happier with the smaller surf than Toledo, whose speed and precision of turns and vast array of aerials is tough to match when the waves are around head-high.
But Colapinto is no slouch in the air either, notching up the first perfect 10 point ride of the season so far in his quarter-final on Sunday with a giant, full rotation above the lip.
He dispatched a some-what out of sorts John John Florence, Hawaii’s twice world champion, with another big high-flying spin in the second semi-final.
Colapinto, 23, caught the biggest waves of the final and surfed powerfully on his backhand to take a slender lead into the final few minutes before the ocean went flat, denying Toledo an opportunity to battle back.
“I can’t believe what people have to go through to get to this win, it’s as good as it gets,” he said.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
