HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Sage Erickson, 19, marched to an impressive equal third-place finish at the ASP 6-Star Estoril Surf Billabong Girls in Portugal this past week while fellow Californian Courtney Conlogue, 17, finished fifth, with each competitor capitalizing on
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Sage Erickson, 19, marched to an impressive equal third-place finish at the ASP 6-Star Estoril Surf Billabong Girls in Portugal this past week while fellow Californian Courtney Conlogue, 17, finished fifth, with each competitor capitalizing on the substantial ratings points on offer towards qualification for the 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour.
Surfers competing on the ASP Women’s Star Series are out to finish on the top of the ratings to find their way on to the ASP Women’s World Tour.
Erickson went on a tear at the event, states an ASP press release, besting current ASP Women’s World No. 10 Jessi Miley-Dyer, 23, and reigning ASP Women’s World Junior Champion Laura Enever, 18, before falling to Brazil’s Jacqueline Silva, 30, in their semifinals matchup.
“I definitely really wanted to be in the final but Jacqueline (Silva) got the better exchange on each wave,” Erickson said. “She surfed well, so she deserves the scores that she got and I’m just going to take these Semifinal points from the 6-Star and just push through to the next event in France.”
The equal third-place result earned at the Estoril surf Billabong Girls launches the young regular-footer to No. 8 overall on the women’s ASP Star ratings entering the next event, the ASP 6-Star Swatch Girls Pro, which begins today.
“Last year, losing out by one spot has really inspired and motivated me to push just as hard this year,” Erickson said. “This semifinal result is much better than anything I got last year so I’m just counting my blessings and looking forward to the next event.”
Conlogue, who is the defending Hurley U.S. Open champion, was also a standout in the ASP 6-Star event and took out a heat win over current ASP Women’s World Tour campaigner Claire Bevilacqua, 27, before falling to Australian prodigy Tyler Wright.
“You really need to know what you are doing out there and keep to your plan,” Conlogue said. “That’s something I definitely didn’t do in this heat because when I got out there the waves were coming in everywhere and you just need to trust yourself and stick to that one area and hopefully you get a few exchanges and it didn’t work out for me in that heat.”
Erickson and Conlogue will continue their quest for a spot amongst the globe’s finest competitive surfing talent at the 6-Star Swatch Girls Pro, running May 12-16.
