Kiwi surfer Ricardo Christie eliminates world No 1

Ricardo Christie of New Zealand. Photo / File.

New Zealand surfer Ricardo Christie has eliminated joint world No.1 Filipe Toledo from the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia.

Christie, from Gisborne, competing for the first time this year on the elite 32-man world championship tour, beat Toledo in a second round heat by 13.26 to 13.07.

Toledo is the form surfer on the tour, winning the opening event and backing that up with a quarter-final effort. Christie had suffered two 25th results to slip to 31 on the rankings.

Australian Owen Wright also produced a perfect 10 wave score in big surf on day two of the competition.

Wright was outstanding in his round-two heat at the World Surf League event as he beat Hawaiian Dusty Payne 18.50 to 10.90.

Remarkably, it was the first time that Wright had surfed at The Box, near the Margaret River main break.

His maximum score of 10 for one his two scoring rides came a day after he lost his round-one heat at the main break and was forced into the sudden-death second round.

"Yeah, first time. I just said 'aw, head down, just go'," Wright said.

"I can remember after my 10, I was going give me more.

"I just love it. I love waves like this."

Wright earned his perfect score on one of the bigger waves seen so far at this year's event.

"It came through and I was just trying to put myself in the spot, right in the bubble," Wright said.

"I've seen a lot of the guys drifting in too far, so I tried to be further out.

"It let me in perfectly and the wave went from there."

Toledo's compatriot, reigning world champion Gabriel Medina, was also knocked out of the event.

Continuing his patchy start to the season, Medina fell to Australian Jay Davies 15.17 to 7.67.

Adriano de Souza, who lost the Bells Beach final to Mick Fanning on a countback, had a 9.80 wave score and beat fellow Brazilian Alejo Muniz.

Australian Josh Kerr recovered from his nasty wipeouts on Wednesday to beat American CJ Hobgood, while local Taj Burrow had a convincing win over American Brett Simpson.

-AAP