Two Australian rookies have made shock appearances in the Sunset Beach quarter-finals, but seven-time world champion Steph Gilmore has bombed out.
It was a day of carnage for Australia's biggest surf stars at Sunset Beach in Hawaii, but teenage rookie Molly Picklum bucked the odds with a stunning upset win over five-time world champion Carissa Moore.
Steph Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons and Tyler Wright all crashed out in the round of 16 on Friday.
Nineteen-year-old Picklum and fellow rookie India Robinson flew the flag for Australia before being eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Picklum, from Gosford on the Central Coast, notched a two-wave total of 13.03 to edge out Moore (11.20) in their round-of-16 battle.
She came close to snaring a semi-final berth, only to fall short in the quarter-finals against Costa Rican Brisa Hennessy, who won 14.77 to 13.16.
Victorian Robinson stunned Fitzgibbons in the round of 16 before her dream run was ended in the quarter-finals by 16-year-old Hawaiian Bettylou Sakura Johnson.
It meant no Australian woman made the semi-finals.
Gilmore, who was ruled out of the season-opening Pipeline due to COVID protocols, found the going tough at Sunset Beach.
The seven-time world champion was thrust into the elimination second round after finishing last in her opening heat.
Gilmore scraped through to the third round, but she was off her game against Gabriela Bryan and ended up going down 13.16 to 12.44.
"I just had a shocker," Gilmore told the WSL broadcast.
"I've had some good success here at the past in Sunset, but I feel like every time you come back here you have to relearn everything.
"It was a bummer. It's just one of those things. You have to shake these things off.
"I'm excited to get to Europe and get a better result there. That's all you can do, keep pushing on and try to make the cut."
Gilmore conceded she was well off the pace in the title hunt.
"I'd love to win an eighth world title, but currently I'm just not putting it together well enough to be anywhere near it," she said.
"I've got a lot of work to do."
Two-time world-title winner Wright was eliminated by Malia Manuel in the round of 16.
Manuel will take on Bryan in the first semi-final when finals day gets underway before Hennessy locks horns with rookie Johnson.
