Owen Wright was upset by wildcard Vasco Ribeiro during Round Two of the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, putting an end to his 2017 World Title hopes. But Wright's run remains one of the biggest stories of 2017. That he was even in this thing to begin with is nothing short of a miracle. After suffering a traumatic brain injury in December of 2015, in the midst of a World Title quest, the question wasn't whether he would ever compete again, but if he'd ever surf again, let alone be himself again. So when he finally threw a jersey on for the first time in more than a year in early 2017, nobody expected much, which explains why grown men wept when he won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast.
Wright followed with a solid season, and while he was mathematically eliminated from the 2017 Title race today, he's still eagerly anticipating his next trip to Pipeline, the place where his life-altering journey began.