Special coverage presented by Surf City - El Salvador Travel 

Two of the greatest power surfers on the world tour today, Jordy Smith and Gabriela Bryan, were the winners of the Surf City El Salvador Pro.

With the sea rising, the waves becoming more solid, the high performance historically seen in the wave, or the level of "modernity" went down a notch, and surfing based on good fundamentals, power, and courage was valued and won.

In Smith's case, perhaps mixed with a bit of modernity, of course. The guy is a founding part of the Modern Collective era; but his scores came from that madness of pure fundamentalist surf finesse that he possesses.

And the Hawaiian reality is that it has always been like that.

Both enjoyed a forehand point that gave them the time and space to execute long bottoms that ended in explosive maneuvers.

Jordy's reading of Punta Roca is poetic. He stopped in just the right place, positioned his hands, his curves, and perfectly read a wave that, by definition, isn't easy to read.

And on the other hand, it is worth noting that the main representatives of modern surfing: Filipe and Yago, to name two, lost quickly and lost to power surfers like Alan Cleland and Matt McGillivray.

Coming off victories that included a lot of combined airs, but with power surfing, and with Punta Roca being bigger, the trend was clear: power surfing won.