Day 1 of the Oneill Cold Water Classic at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz is in the books and there were big performances for some young and not so young, southern California surfers.
Lucas Owston and David O'Keefe each made it through two rounds of competition on Tuesday and can now relax a bit and wait for the round of 32.
Owston won his first heat with scores of 7.50 and 6.33 then survived round two in a heat where waves were tough to get. Only 11 waves were surfed and Owston had just two of them, but they were scores of 6.00 and 5.90, enough to make it through the round.
O'Keefe caught just two waves his first heat, but they were 4.50 and 5.77 and got him through in second place.
Then in round two, took the heat win with a 7.60 and 6.43. His 14.03 total topped Jett Schilling, who also made it through in second place with a 6.93/12.80.
Wyler provided some of the drama of the afternoon with a two-minute drill that would have made any quarterback proud.
He sat in third with just two minutes left and pulled out back-to-back scores of 6.27 and 5.73 to flip the heat and pull out the heat win.
"There weren't many waves at all in the heat so I knew it was going to come down to the last minute, " Wyler said. "I needed a high 4 on my second to last wave so I went through the motions and connected a few sections. The best set of the heat came in right when I kicked out of the wave, but I managed to get on the end of one, and pulled an air reverse with another turn or two and it moved me into first. I'm excited to surf some more."
Making it even more gratifying for the San Clemente surfer was the fact he used a backup board after snapping his regular board in practice on Monday.
More big performance were by San Clemente's Hagan Johnson and NSSA Explorer surfer Jack Zoltan.
Johnson, who parlayed a 6.83 wave to a 11.00 heat score and a heat win and Zoltan surprised many by advancing through as the lowest seed in the heat with a 3.83 (7.53).
"I just came in here to have fun" the 19-year-old Johnson said. "The waves are sick I'm stoked to be up here"
More so Cal notables to advance.
Two-time US Open champion Brett Simpson won his heat (6.50, 5.67-12.17)
Wheeler Hasburgh put up 4.67 and 4.30 in a low scoring heat but his 8.97 was enough for the heat win.
Dylan Hord won his heat with a 6.33 and 3.93.
Kyan Yang from Encinitas advanced on with a second-place finish with wave scores of 7.0 and 6.17.
Wesley Santos scored a 6.17/10.90 to win his heat.
Cole Houshmound from San Clemente won his second-round heat with scores of 7.67 and 6.83
Taro Watanabe advanced to round three with a second-place finish with scores of 6.17 and 4.83.
Jake Davis had a huge round in winning his heat with scores of 8.50 and 6.00
Taj Miller from Newport had 4.73/8.26 to advance in second behind Brett Simpson.
Rex Hennnings and Jak Ziets both advanced through their first-round heats but lost in round two.