Australian Matt Wilkinson has continued his flying start to the World Surf League season by storming into the fourth round of the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.
Full of confidence on Sunday after claiming his first WSL win last week on the Gold Coast, the 27-year-old rode the momentum into a dominant round-three victory over American Kanoa Igarashi.
Wilkinson enjoyed great success at the iconic Victorian venue as a junior but until now he'd never moved out of the third round at the top level.
"I've always thought that this wave really suits me," said Wilkinson, who hails from the NSW Central Coast.
"I've always come into this event feeling really good and as a junior I won a few events down here.
"Maybe I got a little too excited and I always seemed to get one big score and lost after needing a three (point ride) or doing something stupid.
"This year I've been trying to get rid of those mistakes."
Wilkinson dominated his match-up with Igarashi, getting two high-scoring waves early on and winning 15.47 to 8.37.
"The first wave I finished really strong and every wave after that I started strong and fell off on my last turn," he said.
"I can hold back on that last turn and make sure I get it done.
"One of the scores would have been a bit higher if I had just settled down and made sure I finished it."
Julian Wilson was the other Australian round-three winner on Sunday in a 12.44 to 9.67 victory over Brazilian Miguel Pupo.
Hawaiian Mason Ho caused a boilover victory in the final round-three encounter of the day.
Ho caught the highest-scoring wave of the heat in the dying seconds to claim a 15.10 to 14.33 win over reigning world champion Adriano de Souza of Brazil.
The other third-round winners on Sunday were Brazilians Italo Ferreira and Wiggolly Dantas and American Nat Young.
Australian stars Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson, and 11-time world champ Kelly Slater of the US have yet to contest their third-round match-ups.
Slater stayed alive in an event he has won four times by winning a cut-throat second-round encounter against teen wildcard Timothee Bisso from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Sunday morning.
The 44-year-old Slater won the first of his four Bells titles in 1994 - before Bisso was born.
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