Perfect glassy two-to-four foot (1 metre) waves greeted the first surfers of the 2012 Hurley Pro, at Lower Trestles, California.
Kelly Slater built momentum throughout his opening heat to advance directly to Round 3 over fellow veterans Tiago Pires and Taylor Knox. Admittedly, Slater has been spending less time in the water lately, but showed no signs of fatigue in his dominant Round 1 performance.
"I've got to be honest, I'm not surprised it was a slow one because I had Taylor Knox in my heat," Slater said.
"He's had the most restarts ever at Trestles before for some reason. I wanted to win that first one because I haven't been surfing that much lately. I surfed all day yesterday and I'm kind of tired today. The last few weeks I haven't surfed a whole lot and I'm trying to figure out new boards."
