The first round of Subaru Pro TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival concludes: 2011 ASP World Tour
The Subaru Pro TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival kicked off on Thursday, April 28, at Back Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand. The event is the third of the 11 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) stops that is scheduled to take place this year. With a prize-purse of US$100,000 and coveted ASP ranking points on offer, the entire week is expected to deliver a heavy dose of exciting surfing action.
Originally scheduled to start on Wednesday, the competition got postponed to Thursday due to strong winds. The contest, however, remained further delayed even on Thursday morning as mother-nature refused to cooperate. However, by afternoon the conditions improved and allowed the event to commence in 0.5-metre waves.
The opening day of the competition featured 18 of the world’s top female surfers in six heats.
The first heat pitted the local surf star, Paige Hareb, against the former World Champion from Australia, Chelsea Hedges and the World Tour rookie, Tyler Wright, also from Australia. A huge crowd was in attendance to support their local surfer. To their joy, Hareb managed to beat her Australian rivals through excellent surfing. She prevailed with a 2-wave score of 15.00 against Hedges’ 7.90 and Wright’s 6.75.
In the second heat, America’s ASP World Tour rookie, Courtney Conlogue, triumphed over Brazil’s Silvana Lima and Australia’s Rebecca Woods. She earned herself a pair of eights in order to end up with a final score of 16.10. Lima scored 14.10 while Woods finished with 11.20.
The third heat featured the ASP World No.1 and defending Subaru Pro champion Carissa Moore, from Hawaii, taking on Australia’s Jessi Miley-Dyer and the wildcard entry, New Zealand’s Sarah Mason. Moore walked away victorious from the event after scoring 12.75 from her two waves. Mason and Miley-Dyer ended the heat with a final score of 11.30 and 10.50, respectively.
“The waves were pretty good, but I'm not too psyched with my performance,” Moore said. “I didn't get too many great waves and only scored two sixes. I wish I could have done a better job but we had some fun waves and at least I'm through.”
Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons was high on confidence due to her maiden ASP World Title Tour victory at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach earlier this week. She faced her compatriot, Claire Bevilacqua and France’s Pauline Ado in the fourth heat. Continuing her excellent form, Fitzgibbons landed the best two-wave score of 18.45 to seal the fate of the heat. Bevilacqua scored 15.53 and Ado ended up with 10.00.
Fitzgibbons, fresh off her maiden ASP World Title Tour victory at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in Australia this week, proved her backhand to be as polished as her forehand, netting the highest two-wave heat total of the round, an 18.45 (out of a possible 20.00) to defeat Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) and Pauline Ado (FRA).
Talking to the media later, Fitzgibbons said. “I feel like my surfing has been on the right track for the last couple of years but I was making a few mistakes. I think I've learned a lot from the ins and outs of losing as well as winning so it feels really nice to get another win out here today.”
The four-time ASP World Champion from Australia, Stephanie Gilmore, faced her fellow-Australian Laura Enever and Hawaii’s Alana Blanchard in the fifth heat. Selecting the best waves to earn a decent score, Gilmore won the heat with score of 16.10 against Enever’s 9.15 and Blanchard’s 3.10.
The last heat of the day featured an showdown between Hawaii’s Melanie Bartels, her compatriot Coco Ho and Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich. After an intense battle, Bartels walked away a winner with the score of 13.95 against Ho’s 13.40 and Mulanovich’s 12.90.
The first and second place finishers of each heat will make their way to the second round, while the third place finishers have already reached the end of the road in Taranaki. The next round will take place at Fitzroy Beach on Friday, April 29.
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