Adam Melling claimed bragging rights over good mate Bede Durbidge as Australian surfers dominated men's Rip Curl Pro round-two action at Bells Beach.
Melling's 16.17 points to 16.00 victory over his training partner was the tightest of the 12 second-round encounters on a day when defending champion Mick Fanning and tour veteran Taj Burrow also advanced.
"This place changes day to day - the surf, everything," said Melling, from the northern NSW town of Lennox Head.
"You've just got to go with the punches out here, give it your best, because you never know what's going to come around that corner.
"Because Bede and I train together and are pretty good mates it makes the competition a little bit more fierce.
"You want to be the guy that brags when you go home and have a laugh with your mates.
"He wants blood, he wanted to get me, and I guess I wanted to get him."
Fanning was drawn in the opening second-round encounter at 0700 (AEST) on Easter Sunday and duly recorded a solid 11.00-8.84 victory over Australian wildcard Joe van Dijk.
"I don't mind having the early heat," said the 33-year-old Fanning.
"I get up and surf anyway, so it's just a matter of preparing a little bit longer."
Van Dijk, 16, had impressed Fanning at a grommet camp hosted by the Queenslander early this year.
"With wildcards you never know what's going to happen," said Fanning.
"They can just click, they can fire on and put everything together or they can just crumble.
"You never know, so you just have to go out there, put a game-plan together and just try and get moving."
Burrow, 36, eliminated New Zealand rookie Ricardo Christie from a second straight World Surf League event.
In the highest-scoring second-round encounter, Burrow beat Christie 17.27 to 15.27 - repeating the result from last month's Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast.
Burrow, 36, won the title at Bells back in 2007.
The other Australian round-two winners were Matt Banting and Matt Wilkinson, who ousted countryman Adrian Buchan.
But Kai Otton bowed out to Hawaiian Freddy Patacchia.
Early-season ratings leader Filipe Toledo from Brazil beat Hawaiian Dusty Payne 17.10 to 15.10.
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