World Surf League pacesetter Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson were among four Australians to win their opening-round heats at the Quiksilver Pro France.
Three-time world champion Fanning overcame a potentially treacherous round-one matchup against Tahiti's Michel Bourez and local wildcard Maxime Huscenot.
The Australian threaded through an incredible barrel scored at 9.73 by the judges to lock in the win.
"It can be heaven or hell out there," said Fanning, a four-time winner of the title at Hossegor.
"If you get the waves it's great and there are some amazing ones, but you can also easily get lost real quick.
"You've got to pick your spot and hopefully they come."
Wilson, who sits in fifth spot on the WSL standings, racked up the highest combined first-round score of 18.80 to dominate his heat against Brazil's Miguel Pupo and Aritz Aranburu from Spain.
"I got into a really good rhythm with the sets and got two waves back to back," said Wilson.
"It was really fun out there."
The other Australian heat winners were Adrian Buchan and Bede Durbidge, but Owen Wright and Joel Parkinson were beaten in the opening round and will now have to win in round two if they are to progress any further.
Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater was also pitched into a cut-throat second-round matchup after going down on countback to fellow American Brett Simpson on Thursday.
Simpson and Slater both had two-wave combined scores of 14.84 in a tight heat also involving Brazilian Jadson Andre, who was runner-up last year in France.
It was a crucial victory for Simpson who currently sits outside the top 22 in the world and will need some big results in the final three events of the season to retain his spot on the WSL in 2016.
American John John Florence had the biggest single-wave score of the day, a spectacular effort of 9.93 in his heat win over Brazil's Alejo Muniz and Frenchman Jeremy Flores.
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