Stephanie Gilmore defeats Carissa Moore to win Roxy Pro France 2011 title
After a heavy dose of intense surfing battles for almost a week, Roxy Pro France 2011 came down to the mother of all battles, the final, on Friday, July 15, at La Grande Plage in Biarritz, France.
The final showdown took place between the four-time and reigning ASP Women’s World Champion from Australia, Stephanie Gilmore, and the current ASP season’s World No.1 from Hawaii, Carissa Moore. The battle turned out to be as thrilling as expected, but once
the buzzer rang, it was Gilmore who walked away with her first win of the season.
The surfing conditions prevailing at the event site turned out to be quite decent, with quality three-foot waves hitting the coast, much to the delight of the finalists and fans. The stage was set for an epic showdown between the two in-form ladies.
With the fate of the season already decided, there was hardly any pressure on either of the ladies. Moore had already secured the 2011 ASP Championship crown, while Gilmore was contesting to finish the victory-drought that she had been experiencing for months
now.
As the final kicked off, the 23-year-old Gilmore managed to move ahead of her Hawaiian rival on the scoreboard after a series of waves, unleashing a stylish forehand attack and string of turns on one of them to score 8.87 off it. She soon added another 8.40
points to her account, moving to an amazing two-wave total of 17.27 points, one of the best in the event so far.
The 18-year-old Moore had gotten off to a great start, throwing her version of the turns on the third wave that she caught to net 8.00 points off it. She led the battle for fifteen-minutes, but was unable to withstand Gilmore's sudden rampage. Even after
collecting a 7.50 off a wave in the final minutes of the heat, the Hawaiian ended 1.77 points short of her rival’s heat-total and was forced to surrender victory to Gilmore.
After a remarkable performance, the Australian was able to secure a 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour event win.
Talking to the media after the heat, she said, “Her turns out there were really strong and I thought she was surfing better than me but I got a little head dip and it was the excitement of everything. To beat the freshly crowned world champ [Carissa Moore]
is pretty cool.”
Moore was all smiles after the final as well, clearly not too disappointed with the way the final unwrapped, “It's been a great event and I was just smiling during the whole final,” an excited Moore said. “It's probably the heat I've spoken in most in my
career and we were just enjoying our time out there with Stephanie. The waves were fun and I am just super stoked to be here in Biarritz.”
With the conclusion of the final, the sixth stop of ASP Women’s World Tour was a wrap. While the fate of the championship was already decided, there was still one more stop left, Nike US Open of Surfing, in California, USA, which will run from August 1 to
6.
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