It was a dominant first day of surfing for Team USA with all five surfers winning their heats.

Griffin Colapinto and John John Florence booked their tickets to the last 16 with impressive performances with Colapinto top scoring with a 9.53 wave in the men’s competition.

“Having a kid, my first son, I feel like it’s taken a lot of pressure off me,” Florence said afterwards.

“He is now the most important thing to me, so for me it makes competition a fun thing. I feel when I take the pressure off myself, that’s when I surf my best.”

In the women’s competition Caroline Marks earned the best overall score of the day (17.93) while Caitlin Simmers beat Molly Picklum of Australia and Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb in her heat.

Reigning Olympic champion Carissa Moore also won to ensure all five advanced as heat winners and have Sunday off as a result.

The two surfers in each heat who did not win now go into elimination heats, where they will go head-to-head for a place in the last 16.

The surfing competition is taking place in Tahiti which at approximately 15,700km from Paris, is the largest distance between events at a single Olympic Games.