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Gilmore Back On Top After NAB Beachley Classic Win

CURL CURL, Sydney (Sunday, Oct. 14 2007)- ASP World Tour rookie Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) proved unstoppable at Sydney’s Curl Curl beach this morning, successfully defending her NAB Beachley Classic crown to reclaim the World No. 1 spot.

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The 19-year-old who won this event as a wildcard in 2006, defeated Brazilian sensation Silvana Lima (BRA) in the toughest Final seen on the ASP Women’s World Tour this year.

Competing in excellent 1-metre surf, Gilmore and Lima went wave for wave in their first ever match- up, producing performances that have taken women’s professional surfing to new heights.

Gilmore edged out her South American foe with an overall score off 15.43 to Lima’s 15.33 (both out of a possible 20.00 points), earning US$ 20 000, the richest prizemoney purse on the ASP Women’s World Tour.

“I can’t believe it!” Gilmore exclaimed after the Final. “That was one of the hardest heats of my life. It was back and forth the whole time and Silvana was getting waves that I didn’t want and turning them into 7’s and 8’s. It was scary! To beat her is just incredible!” Continued…

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Categories: General, Women\'s Pro Tour.

By anne
— October 14, 2007 at 1:15 pm

Broom Sticks and Surf Sticks

Cocoa Beach, Florida

Surfet’s 3rd Annual Halloween Wahine Pro/Am Surf Contest “ghosted” by Coconuts on the Beach is creeping up. Surfer ghouls and goblins will come together in Cocoa Beach, where minutemen meets the beach, the weekend before Halloween, Oct. 27th and 28th, for a fun celebration that helps benefit The World Skin Cancer foundation. Cocoa Beach’s, 8 x World Champion Kelly Slater, highlighted the 2ND Annual Event by participating in the Tandem Division for charity. Over the past two years, this event has attracted many talented female surfers and their families.

New to this year’s line-up are the Pro Divisions for Women with a pretty $weet purse. Even though this competition highlights the girl surfers, there are plenty of fun divisions for the whole family including Tandem, Best Costume and a ¼ mile Paddle Battle. Former East Coast Champion, Todd Holland, and ESA Champion Lauren McLean will be hanging with the little ghouls and goblins for a grom session.

There are plenty of Halloween surprises thanks to this year’s awesome sponsors: Coconuts on the Beach, Spy Optics, WRV, Few New Zealand, Viking Surfboards, Marchiquita Swim wear, Dr. Surfer Dude’s Surf School, and Beach Classic Vespa!

Register online now at www.surfet.com or feel free to call Surfet if you have any questions, 321.868.3021. For information on the World Skin Cancer Foundation: www.worldskincancerfounation.com

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Categories: General.

By anne
— October 5, 2007 at 7:51 pm

Congrats to the new ESA Easterns Champions

The 40th Annual Eastern Surfing Championships took place Sept. 23-30th on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is one of the largest surfing events on the east coast drawing the top talent from Maine to Florida. Surfers must qualify through local ESA events and then regionals to earn a slot in Easterns. All the competitors who made the trek to the Outer Banks deserve a round of applause, but the bragging rights go to the winners listed below. Congrats!

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Iron Woman Kate Easton, photo by Pete Taras, courtesy of Transworld Surf

Girls (14 & Under)
1st Keenan Lineback M02- NSC-1+AS
2nd Brittney Hickey N01- SNJ-3
3rd Liza M Caban M11- PRC-1
4th Savanna Bradley S01- CFL-1
5th Nikki Viesins S02- CFL-3
6th Haley Watson S06- SAFL-1

Junior Womens (15-17)
1st Jessie Carnes S01- NFL-1
2nd Ariel Engstrom M02- PRC-2
3rd Alexis Engstrom M01- PRC-1
4th Kim Kepich N03- CNJ-1
5th Kate Leonik N04- SNJ-3
6th Michelle Creamer S02- CFL-2

Womens (18-29)
1st Lauren McLean S03- CFL-1
2nd Lindsay Barfield S04- NFL-5
3rd Leanne Foster M02- OBNC-1
4th Tiffany Layton S02- RC+NFL-6
5th Kayla Beckman S05- NFL-1
6th Maria Del Mar Gonzalez M01- PRC-1

Ladies (30 & Over)
1st Ana Barend N01- SNE-1
2nd Jenny Brown M01- SSC-1+AS
3rd Mindy Fitzpatrick M02- CNC-1+AS
4th Christine Benedetts S02- TCFL-1
5th Kate Whatley S01- NCFL-1
6th Jessica Delosreyes M10- OBNC-1

Womens Longboard (29 and under)
1st Kate Easton M03- VA-1
2nd Brittney Hickey N06- SNJ-1
3rd Mallory Turner S07- NFL-5
4th Lisa Autrey S02- SAFL-1
5th Christine Emmanuelli M04- CNC-2
6th Regena Foster S05- TCFL-1

Ladies Longboard (30 & Over)
1st Mindy Fitzpatrick M03- CNC-2
2nd Jenny Brown M02- SSC-2
3rd Marty Mentzer M05- SNC-1
4th Traci Derbin M??- RC+OB
5th Beth Schub M01- CNC-1
6th Nathalie Glenn M04- CNC-3

Iron Woman
Kate Easton VA

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Categories: General.

By anne
— October 2, 2007 at 9:18 pm

Roxy Jam Cardiff- Linda Benson Pro

Last year’s 1st annual Roxy Jam Cardiff featuring the Linda Benson Women’s World Longboard Pro was a huge success drawing over 80+ pro competitors from around the world to compete for the $15,000 prize purse and title of U.S. regional Women’s Longboard Champion.  The event also raised over $12,000 for the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy.

The 2nd annual event will again take place at Cardiff Reef on Sept 22-23 and will feature the Linda Benson Women’s World Longboard Pro, an amateur longboard competition open to all ages, and a beach fair with vendors, live music, art exhibits and more.

More information at www.lindabensonpro.com.

 

Linda Benson says “the Women’s World Longboard Tour that Roxy has developed has been an amazing turn of events for the forever stepchild of surfing.

 Schick Quattro for Women  will host a ‘best maneuver’ award offering an extra $3,000 prize purse for pro competitors.  Co-sponsor Hansen’s will feature the longest nose ride award offering a $3,000 prize purse.  Other sponsors include presenting sponsor Paul Mitchell who will be on-site with their newly launched ‘Head for Change’ fundraising campaign offering haircuts and styling with all money going to the event’s environmental awareness mission; and co-sponsor SurfTech who will award the winner of each amateur division with a SurfTech longboard.

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Categories: General.

By anne
— September 21, 2007 at 8:31 pm

East Coast Wahines premieres on UNC-TV tonight 9pm!

UNC-TV will air the episode of North Carolina Weekend featuring the East Coast Wahine Championships tonight at 9pm. Many of you were interviewed by producer Deborah Holt so tune in if you can. A great big thanks for including the ECWC in UNC-TV’s lineup!

http://www.unctv.org/ncweekend/bshedule.html

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Categories: General.

By anne
— September 20, 2007 at 7:59 am

Back In Session

Lots of people dread the end of summer – colder weather, diminishing daylight, returning to the regimen of school drop offs, lunch making and homework oversight. Although I don’t embrace all aspects of fall equally, I am always willing and ready to hurtle myself into fall. Why you may wonder, especially since the water finally warms up in Santa Cruz (newsflash = water over 60 degrees is considered “warm” here) by the end of summer? Or maybe you think I’m tired of my kids and trying to keep them from spending copious hours in front of a screen.

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The answer is pretty simple, and if you’ve been surfing for a while you probably already know where I am going with this. Fall is when the REAL waves start to arrive and the valleys (“tourists” aka “terrorists” if they ride a 10 foot plus weapon of mass destruction) quit coming over en masse. And truly, there is nothing like a ten to fifteen degree reduction in water and air temperature to inhibit the valleys! Mix in a good northwest swell with enough current and consistency to keep the valleys from making it out to the line up, as well as keeping the “I-wanna-go-pro-show” contingency occupied enough with paddling back out so they cant post up and whistle for all the best set waves and I am well on the way to satiation.

The other thing I love about fall is that it’s similar to being a kid and returning to school – you get to see your tribe again. The locals return and we sort out our own seating arrangement (“line up”) quickly. Instead of writing out “The Best Thing About My Summer Break,” we talk story and catch up on travels, travails, equipment purchases, parenting tips, neighborhood issues and reconfirm our friendships.

And yes, it is prime shark attack season in reality not just theory. Although I don’t love or even like the idea of a shark attack, I have to confess that I do like the way it thins out the numbers even more. The dedication and/ or denial level that is needed to persevere into the fall and beyond especially after a confirmed shark attack (Todd Endris, August 28 2007 Marina State Beach) within the “Red Triangle” makes me fall in love with the ocean even more.

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Categories: General, west coast wahine.

By SantaCruzSurfer
— September 13, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Fun Session

Thanks to Gabrielle moving north rather quickly, the wind went offshore sooner than expected which was both good and bad. Good was the fact that many of us were pleasantly surprised when we went to WB yesterday morning and the surf was really clean. Bad was the fact that the wind went offshore Saturday night so the swell didn’t last long.

oceanbb.jpgI got up before the sun Sunday morning, pulled up the Crystal Pier cam,and saw what looked like some fun surf so I put on a pot of coffee. I didn’t go out until I saw someone, who turned out to be Tico, paddling out. I raced down to the beach and went up to the pier and saw a bunch of people out with long period groundswell coming in. Devon, a welcome sight, came walking down and asked me if I was going out. I replied,”it’s clean so I might as well.”

I paddled out near the pier and there was Tico. He always brightens my day with his good energy and great hugs! Then there was Steve, our resident “Negative Nancy”. All he does is bitch and complain about everything from what I’m riding to people sitting inside and ruining HIS waves. Luckily none of us got caught up in it. Devon wondered aloud, why he even surfs. I wondered the same thing. Finally he went in. I guess he had had enough of himself.
Then a couple of wanna be pro shortboarders paddled out and infiltrated our line up but still didn’t quite ruin it except maybe for Devon. They didn’t seem to like her longboarding and being able to catch the waves a little farther out. hahahah! I told her we would read about her on the WBLive forum. Regardless, she was dropping into some bombs and making them. The boys were probably just jealous.
It was a great day even though I did have to leave and go to work. The waves were about 3-5ft. with some bigger ones coming through and it was an easy paddle out since it was such a long period swell. The vibe was so good and everyone just kept smiling which made for a perfect day!

(ed note: this pic is of Ocean- but not from Gabrielle- this was taken 8.24.07)

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Categories: General, Ocean\'s oasis.

By Ocean
— September 10, 2007 at 7:41 am

Sofia Wins Rip Curl Girls Surf Festival

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Sofia Mulanovich defeated Silvana Lima to win the Rip Curl Girls Surf Festival. Her win pushes her up to # 3 in the ASP standings. Because of the time difference I didn’t catch much of the contest, but Sofia was definately dominating in the early rounds. She made the best of waist, semi choppy conditions, scoring some of the best rides of the contest. In the early rounds Sofia posted two 9’s and an 8.5 in the final against Silvana.

Third place went to Sam Cornish and Amee Donohoe and even 5th went to Layne Beachley, Rosanne Hodge and Melanie Redman-Carr. Check out aspworldtour.com for more info on the contest and highlight videos!

Next event is the Beachley Classic, Oct. 9-14

Make sure to get your picks in for Fanasty Surfer!!! You can read more about the tour by clicking on the Pro News link above.

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Categories: General, Women\'s Pro Tour.

By Kristen
— September 9, 2007 at 7:35 pm

Time for another tropics update

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Click the thumbnail to see the storm come to life.
Well it looks like we may be in for an actual hurricane in the Carolina’s. Disturbance 99L is shaping up quite nicely. The GFDL model shows a little circulation and tropical storm development for tomorrow. Once the high pressure moves off the North Carolina coast, this makes room for the disturbance to develop and become organized and head on a more westerly direction. The high has kept the storm from moving towards the east coast.Some of the models show the storm “fishing” which means turning away from the coast and heading out to sea. This one bears watching because all of the models have it developing at about 96 hours out. The GFDL has it becoming a Cat 2 and nailing the Carolina’s. As usual, we just have to wait and see if we have Gabrielle coming to visit. I may be paddling out to my special place well off the coast sometime this weekend. The seas will be on the rise through the weekend. It’s going to be messy unless you know where to go for cover to avoid the strong NE winds. And there is more than one place in Southern NC. Regardless of the surf, we should keep our eyes on it just in case we have to make any last minute preparations. I’ll update tomorrow after one of the later model runs unless anything significant happens overnight.

There is another system that should be falling off Africa in the next few days and it appears that a tropical depression will form off the Cape Verde Islands. So far the models show this one going along the same path as Dean. It’s way out and the models don’t do so well when systems are this far out. It’s good to watch them though. The African Wave Train is alive and well right now and September could blow up.

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Categories: General, Ocean\'s oasis.

By Ocean
— September 5, 2007 at 5:06 pm

Irony

Well I had started a blog about the 11th annual Wahine Contest, however,something ironic happened which caused me to change my mind. Don’t misunderstand me,the contest was great and I had a really good time. It was so nice to see everyone and make some new friends. It was what happened the day after that made me change my mind about writing a blog dedicated to the contest. Many of you know why the contest began in the first place,and many of you probably think it’s just another contest. The contest began as a way to bring girls and women together due to the loss of a surfer girl. She committed suicide and fortunately something great came out of her death, the East Coast Wahine Championships which is an awesome way to fellowship. It’s too bad Jamie Lynn Melbon wasn’t able to grasp another type of fellowship and hang on just a little longer in order to let the darkness pass. I guess she just couldn’t go on and it’s ironic that she killed herself the day after the Wahine contest. She was 39 years old and loved by many.

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Categories: General, Ocean\'s oasis.

By Ocean
— September 5, 2007 at 4:40 pm