Lowers has secretly become one of the favorite stops for tour surfers. You probably won’t get them to admit, there’s too much machismo on the line when it’s up against the likes of Teahupoo and Pipeline. But I think they enjoy the fact that death’s not on the line at Lowers, except maybe from the crowd during a practice session, and the most threatening thing praying on them are few 45-year-old cougars. Over the past week or so the boys have had an absolute field day on the soft-shouldered, ripable walls. So with high-performance on the brain we offer you a few highlights from the first day of the Boost Mobile Pro Presented By Hurley.

Top Five Turns of Round 1:

1. King Kelly’s first turn on his opening wave ruled the day.
2. All of Sunny Garcia’s turns were massive He proved yet again power is—and always will be—king.
3. Jordy Smith had the entire beach abuzz this morning with a freakish, foot-off-the-board blow-tail, although it was to little avail has he couldn’t squeak past Kai Otton.
4. In the waning seconds Dane saved face by blowing his fins out the back, reversing back and then sliding smoothly into his bottom turn.
5. Parko should be on this list, but the damn guy’s so smooth it’s hard to remember which carve was the best…just be assured, if Kelly don’t win this thing Parko’s coming on strong.

Most Defining Moment:
Kelly’s turn said it all. Throwing a mega fan, he put any question about his intentions to rest. Usually Kelly builds momentum throughout the course of an event, but today he just simply flared.

Upset of the Day:
Really, you’re telling me you couldn’t figure out that an embattled Sunny Garcia manhandling Taj Burrow and Chris Ward isn’t going to go down at the upset of this whole contest? Well, now you know. Oh yeah, he also did it on a surfboard with no wax!

Insight That Would Have Helped Your Team If We’d Only Known:
Last week Andy Irons went to Mexico to get his board back under his feet and get the motor running. Sadly, his digestive hasn’t been the same since. Admitting to feeling bruised and tortured from a violent case of revenge from Mr. Montezuma, Andy did his best to limp through his heat, but obviously wasn’t himself.

Talk of the Beach:
In a gesture of blatant self-promotion, the Surfer Poll is on Tuesday and if it wasn’t people talking about what they were wearing it was who they were bringing…and for those of you who can’t go, tune in to a live webcast of the show starting at 7:00pm Tuesday night.

Wildcard Report:
With the likes of Nathaniel Curran and Pat Gudauskas bound for the world tour Californians have more than just an unbalanced budget to cheer about. And you can add Brett Simpson to that list of next generation dudes. Sitting 21st on the WQS, and surfing in the Boost thanks to a wildcard, Brett not only beat 3rd ranked Bede Durbidge and Ben Dunn, he crushed them. Behind Kelly, Mick, and Parko he tallied the fourth highest heat score of the day. Dude rips!

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