Bigger waves were a welcome sight to surfers on the second day of competition at the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Alii Beach Park in Haleiwa.

But it was a struggle for Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, the women’s world champion who received a wild card into the event to compete against the world’s top men’s surfers.

"I honestly was pretty disappointed with myself and in my performance today," Moore said. "I think that if I was even surfing with the girls I probably would not have made the heat. In that respect, my overall performance did not meet my standards. But that is the way it goes sometimes, and it was great to just be in that atmosphere with the guys and I learn a lot when I lose. That gets me fired up."

Moore will return against the men at the next stop of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing — the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach.

Evan Geiselman of Florida won the highest-scoring heat of the event so far in the 2-4 foot waves against Australia’s Josh Kerr and Hawaii’s Ezekiel Lau and Kai Barger.

Geiselman’s two-wave total was a 17.00 total out of a possible 20.

"Coming from Florida, I’m kind of used to these conditions," Geiselman said about the smaller-than-usual surf for a Triple Crown event. "The lefts are really fun for my surfing. It was a good time out there. I definitely try to be more progressive with airs."

That heat in the third round also had the two highest individual wave scores of the event thus far.

Josh Kerr scored a 9.7 out of a possible 10 points for one huge full rotation backside 360 air with a grab.

Geiselman, meanwhile, got a 9.0 for a snap to tail high 360 air with a slob grab.

Kerr failed to back up his big-scoring wave, however, and ended up in third place in the heat and out of the competition, while Geiselman and Lau advanced.

"It was a gnarly heat," Lau said. "Evan and Josh were just launching huge airs into the wind. I just stuck to my game plan and stayed consistent throughout the heat. I got two good waves, which is all you need. I was kind of freaking out when I saw Josh launch that huge crazy backside air. I don’t know what to even call it right now. I just tried to show power and stay in the pocket with on-rail turns."

Another Hawaii surfer to advance was an in-form John John Florence with a 16.60 in his heat.

"The waves were really fun out there," Florence said. "There were really good sections that were perfect with the wind. I was just looking for them and luckily I found a few."

Florence got an 8.67 for a huge backside no grab 360 air and a 7.93 for a reverse to layback snap combo on a right.

Dane Reynolds of California was in position to advance, but bowed out with less than a minute left in his heat when Hawaii’s Torrey Meister caught a wave inside of him and got the score he needed to advance.

The final day of the Reef Hawaiian Pro starts today at 8 a.m. with the final three heats of the round of 64.