This whole Fijian-style thing can be pretty contagious. Parko warmed up for his heat this morning with a solid three hours fishing, and you get the feeling that the three wahoo he boated were the highlight of his day, even more so than his heat win later in the morning. After last year’s event was cancelled after the military coup, the Top 45 are basking in their return to Fiji for the Globe event, the surf contest that becomes an undeclared holiday for these guys.

Most of the crew rocked out to the islands yesterday and wasted little time unpacking their boardbags and getting amongst the solid pulse of swell that was on offer. The usual living arrangements had been adhered to – the Americans, Hawaiians, Brazilians and South Africans lobbed onto Tavarua, while all the Aussies were dropped onto Namotu… or Convict Island as it’s been dubbed in the past. These arrangements have been in place long enough for a sense of displaced localism to have developed, and for the afternoon freesurf the lineup at Tavarua’s Restaurants was populated exclusively by Tavarua surfers, while the Namotu crew headed out as one frothing, surfing mass, to Cloudbreak.

No one is having a better time in Fiji this time around than the irrepressible Occy. Six months into retirement, the owner of surfing’s most famous underbite is reveling in hanging with his old tour mates again. A wildcard start into the event, Occy lost his heat to Mick Fanning, the silver lining being he gets an extra crack at things with only one other guy out, which is a pretty fair consolation prize considering the conditions. Yesterday, Occ was chosen to make the welcoming speech on behalf of the surfers to a crowd at the opening ceremony that included the Fijian Prime Minister and Chief Druku, Tavarua’s main man. “I don’t have to say anything in Fijian, do I?” Uttered Occy in a line only Occy could utter.

Not on hand at the ceremony were Andy and Bruce Irons, both of whom only arrived on Tavarua this morning, a few hours ahead of their heat. Rather than red-eye connecting flights from Hawaii to LA to Fiji, they added an extra day to their itineraries and arrived only hours before their heats. Didn’t bother Andy none, he blitzed, but Bruce got lost during a wave-starved heat. One guy who won’t be here at all is Dane Reynolds, the Californian rookie surprised everyone when he informed contest organizers at lunchtime that doctors had ordered him to stay home with a virus he hasn’t been able to shake.

One guy who actually made it to Fiji but ended the day feeling worse than Dane was Taj Burrow. The world number seven got rolled over the reef at Restaurants this morning, badly. “It was heavy,” laughed Taj through clenched teeth before his heat. “It was a sick pit, but it just clipped me and next thing I’m on the reef.” The flaying shredded his wetsuit top, and left him with a healthy set of tiger claws running across half his back. To add fuel to the fire coral, he lost his round one heat when he couldn’t buy a wave. He wasn’t alone in doing some reef time today, with Roy Powers, Dayyan Neve and Chris Ward all scoring scars after doing battle with one of the world’s sketchiest coral reefs.

You know, Kelly Slater turning up at this event really doesn’t make it fair for the other guys, especially when it’s run at Restaurants. Up to the point where Kelly walked down the beach for his heat, the surf had been plagued by devil wind and inconsistent sets. It was almost as if a wave of his hand from Kelly was enough to calm the wind and stir the ocean to life. Queue the start of the Kelly Slater Show. Kelly was throwing away nine-point scores in his heat against Taylor Knox and Fijian wildcard Isei Tokovou like chip packets. The 10-pointer came early, and you almost sensed a second one would materialize by heats end, and it almost did. He wound up with a 19.73 heat score, and left all his competitors who witnessed it hoping this thing gets moved out to Cloudbreak quick, a place where his incredible symbiotic relationship with this place isn’t quite as unbeatable as it is at Restaurants.