Andy Irons dug out the old surfboards and stamped his authority as the man to beat in the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, smashing Australian wildcard Ben Dunn in third round elimination heats.

The three-time world champion scored a best two-wave combination of 17.77 points to completely outclass Dunn, whose record against Irons slumped to 0-6 after the heat in two metre waves at the bowl section.

Irons, 27, later revealed he had dusted the cobwebs off some old boards and brought them to Bells, an event he won in 2002 and 2003.

"I've got a stack of boards which I dug up from under my garage that are three years old," said the Hawaiian, who scored the first 10-point wave of the WCT season on Wednesday.

"They're like my old faithful and they've got some juice left in them."

Irons heaped the pressure on Dunn from the outset with a score of 8.17 on his opening wave before pulling out a 9.6 later in the 35-minute heat on a cold and wet Good Friday.

The best Dunn could manage was a six as Irons cruised to a fourth-round clash with Californian rookie Bobby Martinez, who finished third in last month's WCT event on the Gold Coast.

West Australian Taj Burrow also proved he will be a strong contender to ring the famous bell trophy after scoring an 18.17 total - the highest of the contest so far - to demolish American Chris Ward (13.93).

Burrow, a finalist at last month's WCT event on the Gold Coast, will take on fellow Australian and 1999 world champion Mark Occhilupo in the fourth round, expected to be staged on Saturday.

Kelly Slater is confident this could be the year he tames Bells and breaks a drought at this event stretching back to 1994.

He landed a killer blow to the hopes of world junior champion Kekoa Bacalso.

The 34-year-old Slater scored an 8.33 on his first wave to begin proceedings in a solid, if inconsistent high-tide swell and never looked troubled.

"You do a bunch of turns down the line and it burns all the oxygen out of your legs," said Slater, who will next take on good friend and fellow American Taylor Knox.

"It's a little bit mushy and pretty tough to manoeuvre into that inside section."

South African Greg Emslie denied Dean Morrison a fourth round match-up against fellow "Coolangatta kid" Mick Fanning, who defeated South Australia's Jarrad Howse in the penultimate heat of the day.

Australian pair Shaun Cansdell and Bede Durbidge upset brothers Damien and CJ Hobgood while Sydneysider Luke Stedman defeated former world No.5 Phillip MacDonald.

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