Bronte Macaulay, Jacob Willcox and Jack Robinson eye elite surf contest at Margaret River Pro

Local surfers Jack Robinson, Bronte Macaulay and Jacob Willcox will be among the hopefuls vying for elite surfing’s top prize as the Margaret River Pro heats up this weekend.

Joined by local wildcard Otis North from Yallingup, the quartet are up against the World Surf League’s leading surfers as the prospect of the midyear cut looms.

Once the dust is settled and the salt’s dried from the 10-day Championship Tour event, the full field of 36 male and 18 female world-class surfers will be reduced to 24 men and 12 women as the contest heads into the back end of the competition.

Conditions were expected to bring at least two days of competition before the weather gods looked unhappy this weekend.

While Robinson drove the region crazy when he won the prime event in 2022, just as many eyes were on Willcox finally competing full-time at the top level after years as a wildcard and outsider.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Robinson joked that his heat against Gabriel Medina was the chance for the Brazilian to face the defending champion, since Robinson was out of last year’s Pro dealing with injuries.

He and Willcox also reminisced about their childhoods surfing across the region now they were surfing at the sport’s ultimate level.

Macaulay, who also scored her spot in the contest as a wildcard, said she had spent the past few months at home and was in good spirits for the contest.

Yesterday morning she was due to go up against Americans Caitlin Simmers and Sawyer Lindblad.

In other last-minute changes, George Pittar received a wildcard entry too as the third-highest Australian surfer on the Challenger Series rankings, while fellow Aussie Reef Heazlewood takes the injury replacement spot for Brazil’s Joao Chianca.

Brazilians have often dominated at the Pro, much to the ire of residents, but this year it’s Californians Caitlin Simmers and Griffin Colapinto who head to WA in the yellow jerseys.

The looming Pro cut often stirs competitors and this year mightn’t be much different with champions including shark critics Medina and Italo Ferreira just one slip away from the precipice.

Yesterday morning’s opening round match-ups took place as the Times was headed to press.

Pairings included Molly Picklum in with Brazil’s Luana Sila and American Alyssa Spencer, Tyler Wright facing Bettylou Sakura Johnson and Sally Fitzgibbons, while past Pro winner Isabella Nichols vied against Brisa Hennessy and Tatiana Weston-Webb.

For the men, Robinson was facing a full Brazilian against Medina and Deivid Silva.

Willcox was up against favoured Jordy Smith and also Matthew McGillivray, while North would dip his toes in the big time against competition leader Colapinto as well as Hawaiian Seth Moniz.

Despite years of contention that the Margaret River leg could be cut from the world tour amid WSL ambitions to lose one of Australia’s three events, consistent State Government funding, the drawcard of the region itself, and perhaps even the popularity of Margaret River among competitors, seems to have dried that argument out.

And again despite the contention, nary a mention’s been made since of Bells as the only other retained event in the country, with Fiji added back for the first time in years.

The Pro is expected to wrap by April 21.