After days of waiting for waves to arrive, Sunset finally delivered for day 2 of competition at the Vans World Cup. Amid the pulsing swell, a number of Qualifying Series warriors fought to keep their Samsung Galaxy Championship Tour dreams alive during Round Two.
Although many top seeds faced tight battles, the vast majority avoided early elimination. Bino Lopes (No. 8) Ryan Callinan (No. 9) and Frederico Morais (No. 10) all kept their top 10 spots intact, and pushed through to Round Three. But they're not safe yet, because a handful of other top-ranked surfers like Jesse Mendes (No. 13), Ezekiel Lau (No. 15), Deivid Silva (No. 16), Tanner Gudauskas (No. 19), Mitch Crews (No. 20), and Marc Lacomare (No. 21) also advanced.
Still, not everyone left the beach in high spirits, as a few CT hopefuls suffered early defeats. Californian Evan Geiselman (No. 14) and former CT staple Brett Simpson (No. 22) both had Round Two losses, and will have to reset for QS runs again in 2017.