MATT Banting will hope to replicate his success from 2013 and 2014 when he hits the water at Huntington Beach.
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The 22-year-old has a third and a fifth-place finish in his last two attempts at the Californian beach break.
A knee injury forced him to miss last year’s event.
He bypassed the first round this year and heads into round two at 12.30am on Thursday in a heat alongside Dion Atkinson, Timothee Bisso and Brett Simpson.
Banting’s father, Lenny, said the conditions at Huntington Beach would better suit the Port Macquarie product than recent reef breaks.
“They’re more like he’s used to here and he’s been surfing well, he’s just out of luck,” he said.
It comes after Banting bowed out in the third round at the Fiji Pro and the second round at J-Bay.
Check out the fun Banting and the crew had in South Africa before they headed to the US: