Conditions were again poor at Merewether point, forcing organisers to halt the action for an hour and move the competition 300 metres down the beach to Pogos near Dixon Park.

The change of break proved a masterstroke with a host of quality rides produced in the clean one-metre swell.

Dos Santos, 19, recorded the day's highest single-wave score of 8.17 in the opening heat of the round of 96.

The 2009 Chile Pro Junior champion finished the heat with a two-wave score of 12.34, but was pushed all the way by American Chris Ward (10.94), who earlier in the day had produced a 8.17 ride.

"I was super nervous at the beginning after watching Chris do so well in the heats this morning," the goofy-footer said.

"I got lucky in the first five minutes where I was able to catch two fantastic waves that gave me some good points."

Dos Santos is one of 37 international surfers competing in the four-star world qualifying series event.

Another foreigner to appear at home at Pogos was German Nicolau von Rupp.

Despite arriving seven minutes late for his heat, von Rupp got straight to work scoring 11.57 to win his heat from only five contested waves.

In the round of 96 von Rupp again progressed with a score of 8.90, behind South African Chad du Toit (10).

Indigenous Classic winner Russell Moloney backed his impressive display last Wednesday by qualifying for the round of 80 with a two-wave score of 12.14.

The biggest casualty of the day was last year's No.4 seed and former World Championship Tour competitor Ricky Basnett.

The South African scored 8.50 in the second heat of the morning and was eliminated by Jay Phillips (15.17) and Ice Pereira-Ryan (8.90).

Competition begins today at 7.30am with heat five of the round of 96.

Newcastle's Travis Lynch will hit the water in the fourth heat of the day against Dane Durbin, Chris Salisbury and Leigh McMahon.