Stephanie Gilmore has finished runner-up in a four-woman final at the inaugural Surf Ranch Pro to continue her march to a seventh world surfing title.
Gilmore's combined score of 16.70 was enough to finish second behind Hawaii's Carissa Moore's 17.80 total at the artificial wave site in California.
Stephanie Gilmore is on track for her seventh world title.
But the six-time world champion Gilmore crucially edged out series rival Lakey Peterson (16.57) and fellow American Caroline Marks (14.77).
Gilmore was staring down the barrel of finishing last in the four-woman final before notching an 8.87 on her final right-hand wave to improve to second.
Replay
The 30-year-old said she was feeling the heat.
"It was a stressful moment," Gilmore told worldsurfleague.com.
"I just had to go out there and make a right [wave]. I hadn't made a right all today.
"I was just stressing about that."
Peterson couldn't respond, logging 8.87 to fall short of relegating Gilmore to third.
Banking another 7800 points, Queenslander Gilmore has extrended her advantage to 6915 in the standings over second-placed Peterson with two rounds remaining.
"There's much more to give and the girls are ripping, so we'll head to France and see what happens there," Gilmore said.
In the eight-surfer men's final, Gabriel Medina took a small bite out of countryman Filipe Toledo's tour lead with a second-straight win.
Australians Owen Wright (15.40) and Julian Wilson (15.37) were forced to settle for fifth and sixth respectively as Medina's consistency was enough to cancel out a near-perfect 9.80 score from Toledo.
"I'm happy with that run [but[ just wondering what I have to do to get a 10," Toledo said.
Toledo (49,785 points) still holds the advantage over Medina (45,685), with the Brazilian duo both well clear of third-placed Wilson (37,125) and fifth-placed Wright (29,485) heading into next month's event in France.
AAP
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