HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — The 14th Annual Roxy Pro Hawai‘i at Sunset Beach — the biggest, heaviest wave contest on the Association of Surfing Professionals Women’s World Tour announced that its waiting period will be November 24 through December 6.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — The 14th Annual Roxy Pro Hawai‘i at Sunset Beach — the biggest, heaviest wave contest on the Association of Surfing Professionals Women’s World Tour announced that its waiting period will be November 24 through December 6.
In addition to being the seventh stop of the ASP Tour, the event is also the second jewel in the Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing.
The Roxy Pro Hawai‘i is the longest running women’s professional shortboard competition in Hawai‘i and will once again play a crucial part in deciding the 2008 Women’s World Tour Champion. Coming into the event, reigning ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia holds a small lead in the ratings over Roxy team-rider Sofia Mulanovich of Peru, the defending Roxy Pro Hawai‘i and 2005 Women’s World Tour Champion. With the ratings so close and the lead changing hands multiple times throughout this year’s tour, the Roxy Pro Hawai‘i will play a critical role in determining the 2008 ASP Women’s World Tour Champion.
Sunset Beach is regarded as the most difficult wave in the world to surf well. It is a huge expanse of water with the primary take-off zone located more than 250 yards out to sea. Swells converge on that zone from a variety of directions that range from west, all the way to north-east. If a surfer doesn’t know her way around the lineup, surfing Sunset is akin to being lost at sea in a maelstrom.
The 2008 Roxy Pro Hawai‘i will feature the top 17 ranked women on the ASP World Tour, as well as three wildcard entrants who will be determined in the Roxy Trials.
Roxy Team Rider, Sally Fitzgibbons will be among the contestants vying for the wildcards, with her spot already secured for the 2009 Tour, Fitzgibbons is looking to make an early impression at this year’s contest. The 2007 Quiksilver ISA World Juniors Champion Laura Enever was also granted a trialist spot, along with Bruna Schmitz, Coco Ho, Carissa Moore and Lee Ann Curren.
The Roxy Pro Hawai‘i is the second in a series of two Roxy Pro events on the ASP Women’s World Tour schedule. The tour’s first event of the year the Roxy Pro Gold Coast (March) was won by Sofia Mulanovich, who hopes to lock down her second world title in Hawai‘i.
