Margaret River’s Jacob Willcox is through to the quarterfinals of the Gold Coast Pro at Snapper Rocks after dominating his round of 16 heat against American Evan Geiselman.
Willcox, who was a wildcard at his hometown event last month where he was knocked out in the round of 32, put together three solid waves in heat on Friday, opening up on his last 7.83 ride with his sharp backside cuts a highlight of the day.
“I’m pretty happy to take that one out. Evan is probably one of my favourite surfers to watch,” the 25-year-old said.
“I grew up watching him in surf movies so it’s pleasure to be able to surf a heat with him. Sitting out there and there’s just these perfect little ruts coming through. I can’t remember the last time I was that excited to surf a heat in such perfect waves.”
Willcox admitted he had been more cautious with his first wave of the heat under priority, posting a 6.93, before opening up later on to solidify his advantage.
He advanced with a two-wave score of 15.16 to Geiselman’s 9.93 and will face Hawaiian Imaikalani deVault in the next round.
“I feel like at the start of the heat I was just trying to get a couple of scores,” he said. “The heat before was pretty slow so I just wanted to stay on my feet with the opportunities that I had.
“I feel like I got to open up a bit more on that 7.83 and just attack the first section a bit. That’s the surfing I want to do but sometimes under the pressure and the nerves it’s a little bit hard to go to that straight away.”
Willcox said he had been packing boxes for surfboard manufacturer DHD Surfboards in the lead-up to the Gold Coast event which he believes helps keep him grounded.
“Definitely don’t want to be packing boxes for the rest of my life but I love being in there.,” he said. “It keeps you honest and makes you appreciate this a lot more when you get to do it.”
Young American Jett Schilling also snuck through the round of 16 with his third straight buzzer beater, this time against current world No.1 Joao Chianca.
On the women’s side, Australians dominate the semifinal match-ups with Stephanie Gilmore and India Robinson in one heat and Sally Fitzgibbons taking on American Sawyer Lindblad in the other.