The Rip Curl Pro Search 2008 - Somewhere in Indonesia has a few hard acts to follow. Whether it be utter perfection in Mexico, or a wicked Chilean death slab, there is always something intriguing on offer with the Search event and its wandering license. So when Day 1 dawned clear, offshore, and solid 6 ft with bigger sets, you had to wonder just how much good luck can an event have?

The gnarly left reef, not easy to score since it needs a really solid swell to light up, was actually the backup location, as it was showing way better form than Location One. There wasn't a drop out of place at first light, but with an 8.00 am high tide and the wave favoring a low, the early heats would be a lottery. Pancho Sullivan, who drew a short tidal straw with Heat 3, continued his shocking luck this year, in a heat that served him up pinching crumblers; he simply couldn't buy a clean wave. But this is Indonesia, and even in solid swells, mysterious lulls and pulses are the norm. After being denied access to the previous world tour event at J-Bay, due to a visa debacle which left him without his passport until after the event had gone into Round 3, the Hawaiian power monger must be wondering when he will get a break this year. He still survives however, and will do battle in Round 2, almost certainly tomorrow.

Kelly is on fire this year, as anyone who hasn't been kipping under a rock on Neptune would know, and his flames roared today, in a performance so incendiary it's a wonder the ocean didn't boil. He was surfing off the back of awesome performances by Andy and Parko, and when it came to the crunch he just couldn't help himself. After getting shacked to within an inch of his life all throughout the heat, he threw in an epic double barrel job featuring a switch foot into the second tube to finish with, in a classic piece of showmanship. Or was it gamesmanship? After all, Mick Fanning was in the channel ready to surf his heat, and Kelly knew it. Sometimes you can almost see the wheels turning with Mr Superfreak.

The other feature of the day was Heat 5, with Bede Durbidge, Roy Powers and Ricky Basnett, which blew away the peanut gallery in the form of a 20 wave set of rampaging 6 ft slabs, many of which went through unridden. This would have surely puckered the sphincters of the local chargers, who usually rule this wave like an Asian Wolfpack, but today had to just watch and weep.

The pro boys though are frothing, and it's almost reminiscent of their fevered praise for the Mexican Pro Search riches of La Jolla - so far. But tomorrow is another day, so we'll see.

.