Merewether's Philippa Anderson earned the highest single-wave score of the round as she won her opening heat on her home break in Surfest's Doyle Partners Women's Pro on Wednesday.
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The 2009 champion shot to first place in her round of 48 heat with an 8.9 score 10 minutes into the 25-minute contest against Dominic Barona and former championship tour surfers Pauline Ado and Alessa Quizon.
After an early scrap for smaller waves, Anderson picked out a gem and made two quality turns on her forehand, including a big tail slide on the second, to get the score. The natural-footer led with a 3.5 back-up and bettered that with another two-turn effort with five minutes left for a 5.83.
The 28-year-old won with a 14.73 total as Ado finished with a 6.87 in the final seconds to jump to second on 13.37. Quizon (12.8), a runner-up at Surfest in 2014, and Barona (11.2) were eliminated from the 5000-point qualifying series contest.
"It felt good on two turns," Anderson said of her top wave. "I didn't mean to do that [tail slide]. I was like, just do one turn and then the next one, and the tail came out of the water a bit, and I thought 'Oh gosh'.
"But I'm super happy to come in and know I can get high scores and it gives me confidence for the rest of the week. Last year I got knocked first heat so I'm stoked to get through that first one."
She faces top seed Brisa Hennessy and Alyssa Lock in the next round. Anderson is the sole Hunter hope in the women's contest after Newcastle's Sarah Baum bowed out in the heat earlier.
Baum, a two-time winner on the QS this year, finished third to CT surfer Keely Andrew and Kiwi Paige Hareb. The goofy-footer locked in a 7.5 early but struggled to repeat the effort. She finished with 11.3 to trail Andrew (13.83) and Hareb (13.03).
