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A past winner of the event, Winter took the round three heat in style with a two-wave combo score of 13.84 points in the 2ft waves at Fistral Beach.

The 31-year-old, who is the only Briton remaining in the 5star World Qualifying Series contest, defeated South African Daniel Redman and Australian's Drew Courtney and Josh Lewin.

Winter now faces World Championship Tour legend Jake Paterson, fellow Australian Darren Rafferty and Euskadian Hodei Collazo for a place in round five.

Retired Foster's ASP elite world tour surfer Paterson will be looking for his second British scalp when he paddles out against Winter. The Western Australian sunk Newquay's Mark Harris' hopes in an earlier round three heat progressing along with former world junior champion Adriano de Souza.

Harris had to settle for fourth place behind Australian Wade Goodall, who finished third.

"The waves are just as I expected - clean and surfable and the contest director did a great job not going yesterday," said Paterson. "It wasn’t the best heat ever, but I got a 7-pointer out there, so I’m pretty satisfied."

"I am definitely not back on tour," continued the Australian when quizzed about a possible campaign to get back on the Foster’s ASP World Tour. "I am just enjoying myself on a few events and getting a bit of pocket money along by the way."

"I know there's always lots of things said and asked when you are ranked in the top 15, but we are not yet there and with ten big events still coming up, the only pressure I have is to surf my best," said De Silva. "When I'm out there, I don't think of the ratings when I'm standing on my board and that will continue."

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the event favourites, headlined by the elimination of defending champion South African David Wear, Foster’s ASP World Tour surfer Bernardo Miranda, from Brazil; and Euskadian Aritz Aranburu.

Weare had a dream event this time last year, but couldn't find his form in Heat 8. Foster's ASP World Tour rookie Ben Dunn won the heat with 13.50 points, ahead of Adam Robertson in second, Greg Cordeiro in third and Weare in fourth.

Dunn is one of the contest favourites and will be hoping his form continues in round four.

Aritz Aranburu and Bernardo Miranda matched up in Heat 4, with Marco Polo and Basque surfer Hodei Collazo filling out the four-man heat. Miranda had a heat to forget; only posting 3.20 points to finish in fourth.

Aranburu posted a 11.50-point heat score, but it was not enough to overcome Collazo and Polo in first and second respectively. Collazo's 17.00-point heat score is the event's second highest so far.