After a long wait to get underway at the Fiji Pro, Australia's Kai Otton thrashed championship leader Adriano de Souza in the opening round on Friday.
Competition finally started at Cloubreak following five lay days and the 35-year-old Otton racked up one of the highest scores of the day in four-to-six foot waves.
His combined 15.60 was easily enough to account for Brazilian de Souza (8.86) and local Fijian Inia Nakalevu (5.30).
It means de Souza and Nakalevu face a second-round elimination heat while Otton skips safely to the third round.
"I owed Adriano here as he's knocked me out twice before in Fiji - I was ready for payback," said Otton.
Fellow Australian Adrian Buchan also took care of another Brazilian, Filipe Toledo, who is currently second on the series standings.
Buchan, equal with Otton at 30th in the standings, racked up a 15.16 to make light work of a below-par Toledo (8.50) and American Dane Reynolds (8.53).
It was a mixed day for many of the other Aussies.
Three-time world champion Mick Fanning prevailed over New Zealand's Ricardo Christie and local Aca Ravulo, while Taj Burrow also went through to round three at the expense of compatriot Matt Banting and Spaniard Aritz Aranburu.
Things weren't so positive for world No.3 Josh Kerr and injury-wildcard Jay Davies, who were both beaten by Brazilian Wiggolly Dantas and will now face elimination heats.
Davies put in an impressive performance with the heat's top wave score of 8.17, but he was let down by a weak follow-up of just 2.40, allowing Dantas to sneak past on his final effort.
Fifth-ranked Owen Wright (13.67) also went down by a whisker to Hawaiian Sebastian Zietz (14.00) in a heat also featuring Hawaii's Dusty Payne.
Aussies Joel Parkinson, Adam Melling, Julian Wilson Bede Durbidge and Matt Wilkinson will also line up in elimination second-round heats, likely to be held on Saturday.
Earlier, Brazil's Alejo Muniz pulled off the first big upset in defeating 11-time world champion Kelly Slater in a heat in which the American's compatriot Kolohe Andino also lost out.
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