Cover photo: ISA/Jimenez

Tahitian surfer Kauli Vaast won his heat against Kanoa Igarashi and Jake Marshall without using a leash, according to the event's live stream.

Without using a leash, the Tahitian only lost his board once in a closed tube and quickly swam back to get a replacement board and return to the lineup.

As he later explained in the interview: “I feel like it's easier without a leash because if you fall, you don't waste as much time, especially when it's big because when you fall, you buy time, the lifeguards pick you up faster, you just have to go to the lagoon and get the board or do what I did, which was to get the board. I don't waste time.”

“When he's younger it's better to have a leash, but when he's older it's not,” he said.

One who had surfed like this is Jadson Andre, who claimed that by not having a leash the subconscious acts more in favor of not falling.

Kauli achieved the best score of the day so far: 1.