During a short day on the Bells bowl which decided the semi-finalists, Griffin Colapinto was the clear standout surfer.

The men’s world number one ran away with the win against Jake Marshall in QF three, coming out of the gates with an 8.50 and backing it up with an 8.40. This left Jake needing a 9.90 for the majority of the heat – a feat he was unable to achieve despite his Hail Mary approach.

Tracks caught up with Griffin post-heat. He touched on his mental preparation and strategy against Jake, why the yellow jersey takes away the potential pressure of surfing against his friends and what it was like to beat his brother Crosby yesterday.

JS: Tell us a little bit about your strategy in that heat? You got off to a super quick start and it kind of left Jake to adopt a Hail Mary approach for the back end of the heat where he was going for broke to get the 9.90 he needed.

GC: I just had a feeling that Jake was going to really want to wait for the big set waves and it kind of showed at the start of the heat. I just let him have the inside and I was thinking, oh, maybe I’ll just get the ball rolling early and try some airs and then sure enough, first wave, I popped that straight air and got that 8.5. So I think from that, it just put me so far in front in the heat and then the waves started rolling in and we just went toe-to-toe.

JS: How important was it to get that first wave in? The heat before was super slow and Ethan only caught one wave. How important was it to get that 8.5 straight off the bat?

GC: Yeah, that’s pretty important. I kind of had a feeling that there’d be a lot of waves in our heat due to how slow it was before, it kind of happens like that, if it goes slow for a while it will pulse for a bit. But the wave I went on looked clean, not a big wave but really clean and that’s kind of hard to come by right now so I thought I’ll go and there could be some opportunity here. So yeah, it all came down to that first wave I think.

JS: How do you feel about going into WA with the yellow jersey? Does it take the pressure off you for the rest of this event knowing you’re in the top spot coming into the next event?

GC: Yeah, it feels really good. I’m psyched because being in the yellow jersey coming into WA, being a first seed, I’ll go up against the wildcards rather than any friends who may need to make the cut.

JS: That seems to be happening a lot lately, doesn’t it?

GC: Haha yeh, so I’m happy I won’t have to go up against any close friends.

JS: Speaking of friends, how was it last night after taking the win against your brother? Was there any bragging rights or did he have a forfeit for losing?

GC: Nah, he was a little rattled. It was kind of a hard one because I won the heat, but he was pretty bummed. So I was like stoked, but then he was bummed, so I couldn’t be fully stoked you know.

JS: But it must be nice to get one over your brother in a CT event?

GC: Yeh, for sure.

JS: And then just a little bit about you preparation this morning before your heat, do you still read the Power of Now book?

GC: Yeah, I have it in my locker.

JS: Do you ever look to that for inspiration or read it before a heat?

GC: Sometimes yeah, maybe if I’m like super anxious or something. When I read that book, I feel like it really centers me, chills me out and makes me feel really good, so I like to carry it with me.

JS: Nice. How are you feeling for the rest of event? Based on the forecast you could have a few days off, so what’s the plan?

GC: I’m super psyched, I’m probably going to go golf with my friends. I was sick for like a week as well but I’m finally not sick anymore so that is really nice.