Joel Parkinson made light work of small two foot (one metre) waves as he cruised into the round of 16 at the Australian Open of Surfing at Manly Beach.

Home favourite Parkinson looked solid in the air, finishing with a big air-reverse, as he eased through ahead of American Kolohe Andino, who finished second in the heat.

“It’s crazy sitting in the water and looking back at a packed out beach,” Parkinson said of Manly, which is expecting more than 100,000 spectators during the event.

“The surf is small but we’re all dealing with the same conditions, I actually caught some fun ones. I’m a bit of a momentum builder, I don’t want to surf my best heat in the first or second round, I want to try and peak towards the end.”

Australian junior Matt Banting took a big step up as he beat ASP World Tour surfers Jordy Smith and Matt Wilkinson to also reach the round of 16.

“I’m rapt. I’m really happy with my surfing right now,” said Banting, who progressed to the final of the juniors last weekend.

“I’ve made the final of the Pro Junior, and I’ve been surfing every day since then so I feel like I know the waves pretty well here. It’s great to have a heat with those guys, let alone win, they’ve been my heroes since I was a little kid.”

Another Australian, Mitch Crews, also impressed in his heat win before second seed Taj Burrow was on the receiving end of a shock in the final heat of the day as he was eliminated by Hawaiian Granger Larson Brazilian and Peterson Crisanto.

“It’s fun, it’s tiny, but you can still generate speed in the pocket,” Crews said. “I saw that Ace (Buchan) went into the lead at the end there and it fired me up, then I got a good wave and tried to go big to take the lead back off him. I’m frothing.”

The event continues on Saturday with the round of 16, the first one-on-one round of the event.

Eurosport