Brazil’s Filipe Toledo advances at Hawaiian Pro

Brazil’s Filipe Toledo is in fine form, and that bodes well for his run at the world surfing title next month.

Ranked third on the World Surf League’s championship tour, Toledo began defense of his Hawaiian Pro title Thursday and got through to the fourth round by placing second in his third-round, four-man heat to Hawaii teenager Barron Mamiya.

Mamiya, the 2018 Hawaii/Tahiti Nui Region junior champ, scored an 8.23 (out of 10) wave that included two front-side power turns and a snappy fin release on the finish in the 4- to 6-foot conditions at at Haleiwa’s Alii Beach Park.

Later, Mamiya added a 7.83 for landing a back-side tail-high reverse on a wave in which he split the peak with Toledo.

“I saw Filipe going right on that wave and I was like, ‘You know what, the wind is going, I’ve been doing a bunch of airs lately and I think I’ve got them down,’ ” Mamiya said. “So I (went left) and just kind of went for it. I almost fell, but I got myself back up.”

The Hawaiian Pro is the first leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, a season-ending series. The contest needs two more days of competition and is expected to run today and Saturday. If it doesn’t go, the holding period ends Nov. 24. The upcoming Triple Crown contests are the Vans World Cup of Surfing (Nov. 25 through Dec. 6) at Sunset Beach and the Billabong Pipe Masters (Dec. 6-20) at Ehukai Beach.

The Pipe Masters is the WSL’s championship tour finale, where Toledo will try to outsurf the only two other world-title contenders remaining — No. 1 Gabriel Medina (who won the world title in 2014) of Brazil and No. 2 Julian Wilson of Australia. The first two Triple Crown contests are WSL qualifying series contests that are not part of the championship tour and don’t have a bearing on the world-title chase.

Hawaii’s Seth Moniz, who is No. 5 on the qualifying series and has a good chance at making the championship tour next season (the top 10 on the QS move up), put on a show Thursday with a heat victory over Brazil’s Miguel Pupo. Moniz opened up with an 8.00 and backed it up with a 5.93 on a lofty front-side air.

“I’ve been traveling all year doing these QS events and I’ve been doing pretty well,” Moniz said. “To come home with my family and my friends watching, it’s a little nerve-wracking, but once I get in the water all of that goes out the door. That’s what I kind of figured out this year, just to be comfortable in the water in my heats and surf how I do in the freesurfs.”

Originally, the WSL planned to get through the third round Thursday and finish up the event today. Instead, the WSL only ran half of the third round (of 64) Thursday. The plan now is to wind up the third round today and hold the quarterfinals, semifinals and final on Saturday.

“We’ll cherry-pick the best time on Saturday,” contest director Marty Thomas said.

Hawaii’s Finn McGill and Mason Ho won their heats Thursday to get to the fourth round. Fellow Hawaii surfers Benji Brand and Wyatt McHale were eliminated. Griffin Colapinto of San Clemente, Calif., who won the Triple Crown title (the best surfer in the three contests combined) last year, was also eliminated.

Hawaii’s Ezekiel Lau, Sebastian Zietz, Dusty Payne and Kiron Jabour are scheduled to surf their third-round heats today.