Patacchia, Florence win openers in Tahiti

Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia and John John Florence showed off some smooth surfing in tight barrels on Thursday, winning their first-round heats at the Billabong Pro Tahiti at Teahupoo.

Patacchia (15.77) topped defending champion Mick Fanning of Australia (10.60) and Jocelyn Poulou of Tahiti (8.80) in 3- to 5-foot surf.

"I always feel pretty comfortable out here," Patacchia told aspworldtour.com. "We don’t have the best surf today, but we’re still getting barreled, so it’s fun."

Florence’s 16.57 two-wave score was the second-highest of the opening heat. He opened with a 9.07 barrel, followed by a 7.50 on the strength of three backhand turns. Julian Wilson of Australia (11.17) and Miguel Pupo of Brazil (2.17) were simply no match.

Hawaii’s Ian Walsh took second in his heat and Sebastian Zietz took third. Walsh then won his second-round heat 12.40-8.00 over Taj Burrow of Australia. Zietz will surf in Round 2 when the competition resumes.