LIHU‘E — Australian Stephanie Gilmore, the four-time ASP world champion of surfing, eclipsed the field to win the Cholo’s Hawaiian Pro Wednesday — the first leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. With the world title locked away, Gilmore’s
LIHU‘E — Australian Stephanie Gilmore, the four-time ASP world champion of surfing, eclipsed the field to win the Cholo’s Hawaiian Pro Wednesday — the first leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
With the world title locked away, Gilmore’s victory here puts her in good stead to gun for a third Vans Triple Crown title to round out the year. Gilmore, 22, earned $4,500 for the win.
According to Ocean Promotion, Gilmore, surfing in double-overhead waves, was untouchable in every round with near-perfect scores and flawless, critical maneuvers. Runner-up was rookie Australian Tyler Wright, 16, who threw down some of the most futuristic maneuvers women’s surfing has ever seen, but failed to match Gilmore’s well-rounded performance. Third was Kaua‘i’s Alana Blanchard, while Brazil’s Jacqueline Silva was fourth. Wednesday’s results saw Wright, Blanchard and Silva lock in their berths on next year’s elite ASP World Tour.
“I’d love to at some point in my career have a win at every destination,” said Gilmore. “That would be awesome and being in the lead for the Triple Crown is a good feeling.
“Surfing Haleiwa is more about long drawn-out turns and reading the wave really well. Just picking those steeper spots, especially on this deep bank … to get the most critical turn in. I just enjoy right-handers of any kind, and I felt comfortable out there.”
Wright was full of praise for Gilmore: “It was really fun and good waves were coming through. I caught a couple, but Steph blew me out of the water.”
Blanchard and Kaua‘i’s Nage Melamed each made deep runs, along with O‘ahu’s Coco Ho. Blanchard finished first in both her quarterfinal and semifinal heats with scores of 10.30 and 11.94, respectively, before taking third in the final for a $2,100 payday.
Melamed finished second to Gilmore in the quarters with a 13.17-point effort, before a third-place finish in the semis.
The next stop for the ladies is Sunset Beach, stage two of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, Nov. 24 through Dec. 6. The third and final event, open to the top four Vans Triple Crown contenders only, is the Vans Duel for the Jewel at Pipeline, Dec. 8-20.
Reef Hawaiian Pro
Joel Parkinson was ablaze as he opened his account at the Reef Hawaiian Pro Wednesday with a perfect 10 and the highest heat score of the competition in defense of his Vans Triple Crown of Surfing title.
Off the tour for the past six months nursing a serious foot injury, ‘Parko’ had the crowd on its feet as he returned to pure brilliance in double-overhead surf. He signed off on the heat with the highest two-wave total score of the event to date: 19.87 out of a possible 20 points.
“I couldn’t ask for a better place to come back after a long injury,” said Parkinson. “It’s a lot easier to surf when you have a wave that pushes you hard. It’s really hard to surf on small little waves so it feels really good to be back in Hawai‘i.”
Other standouts of the round included Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro, Hawai‘i’s Granger Larsen, New Zealand’s Jay Quinn, Australia’s Yadin Nichol Hawai‘i’s and Evan Valiere, who advanced behind Parkinson but could have won almost every other men’s heat with his score of 16.5.
The Round of 96 was run to completion, narrowing the field to 64 contenders who will battle it out through two more days of competition to crown the champion. Surfline.com, official forecasters for the Vans Triple Crown expect Wednesday’s WNW swell will persist into today for day four action, with a similar new swell expected to arrive Sunday/Monday for the finals. The final bout of the Clash of the Legends will also be held on the last day of men’s competition.
Live internet coverage happens every day, starting at 7:45 a.m. with “THE CALL” — the Triple Crown’s live daily morning show that features all the latest news, highlights and happenings. The series will also be broadcast live on television around Hawai‘i on Oceanic Time Warner Digital Cable channels 250 and HD1250.
