Hawaiian powerhouse Carissa Moore has stolen a march on her great rival Stephanie Gilmore in the surfing world title race by claiming a historic third straight victory in the Rip Curl Pro.
Moore repeated the result from the season-opening event on the Gold Coast by edging out six-time world champ Gilmore in Friday's final at Bells Beach.
Having also won the concluding event of the 2014 tour in Maui, Moore is very much the form surfer as the tour moves to Margaret River next week.
"Every year that I have ever won two events early in the game I have also won the world title," said Gilmore.
"Carissa will be hard to beat.
She's in a great position now to just run away with it, but we'll try our hardest to pull her back.
"Her style of surfing right here really suits this wave.
"It's beautiful to watch, she's very powerful."
Moore won Friday's final in tricky conditions, 14.00 points to 13.27, with Gilmore frustrated as the ocean went flat midway through the decider.
Having also claimed the previous two Bells finals against Australian Tyler Wright, Moore became the first woman in the professional era to ring the bell three times in a row.
"I have really fallen in love with Bells over the last couple of years," said the 22-year-old, who won world titles in 2011 and 2013.
"I really feel confident here and happy and comfortable.
"Growing up on reef breaks, if you sit in the right spot and have good positioning and have faith that something will come, it eventually does."
She leads the title race after two of nine events with 20,000 points, ahead of Gilmore on 16,000, with Wright and American Courtney Conlogue tied for third on 11,700.
"It's a long year and anything can happen," said Moore.
"I looked at myself last year, I started off the year really strong and then I kind of fell apart.
"So for me, it's about not getting ahead of myself, just enjoying it."
Gilmore advanced to the final in dramatic circumstances by edging out Conlogue in their semi.
The American looked to have the match-up in her keeping, only to gift a wave to Gilmore in the dying minutes.
The Australian pounced with a brilliant 9.50-point wave, giving her a 16.50 to 16.23 victory.
"I was certainly confident," said Gilmore.
"Heading into the final I was still warm, I felt good.
"We had a lot of waves and then it slowed up."
Moore's third Bells crown saw her drew level with four other surfers, including Gilmore, one behind the professional era record of four set by American Lisa Andersen in the 1990s.
Australian surfing pioneer Gail Couper claimed a remarkable 10 victories here from 1964-76, but most of those were in the amateur era.
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