The Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour is approaching its second event of the 2014 season for both the men’s and women’s tours. For the first time, both will be competing at Margaret River in Australia at the Drug
The Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour is approaching its second event of the 2014 season for both the men’s and women’s tours. For the first time, both will be competing at Margaret River in Australia at the Drug Aware Pro, kicking off in one week on April 2.
But while the world tours are still in their early stages, there have already been some big contests completed on the World Qualifying Series tour. Through those contests, the Hawaii wahine have taken control and are setting themselves up to be very competitive the rest of the year.
There are 12 WQS events scheduled for the women this year, with the top six finishers in total points earning a spot on the 2015 WCT. Through five of those 12 events, four of the top five in the world rankings hail from Hawaii, two of them from Kauai. Leading the pack – again – is Wailua’s Malia Manuel. Manuel was nearly unstoppable in the first two 6-Star events in Australia, taking an Equal 3rd at the Australian Open of Surfing and then winning the Hunter Ports Women’s Classic.
Her 5,580 points for those top finishes has her ahead of Oahu’s Alessa Quizon in second (5,280), defending WCT World Champion Carissa Moore in third (3,500) and Hanalei’s Nage Melamed in fifth (3,120).
Melamed has been on the qualifying circuit for a number of years now after also competing on one of the best Team Hawaii junior squads to ever participate at the International Surfing Association competition. She finished last year ranked 28th in the world, but now has an opportunity to remain among the world’s elite with some more steady performances.
While just seven of the 12 WQS contests remain, five of them are 6-Star events. Those offer the largest points and can produce heavy shifts in the world rankings. With Manuel, Moore, Quizon and Melamed all towards the top for now, there are many fearsome competitors with plenty of heats left to make up the difference.
Kilauea’s Leila Hurst also had a good start to the year in Australia and is now in 12th place with 1,970 points. Tatiana Weston-Webb isn’t far behind in 24th (1,193 points) and Alana Blanchard is in 30th (1,030 points). Brianna Cope had a nice finish at last week’s Women’s Pipeline Pro and has moved into 46th overall (735 points).
The win last week at Pipeline banked Bethany Hamilton $2,000, but being just a 1-Star event, she currently sits in 55th place (630 points).
Again, it’s early. While it’s not a fallacy to say that through more than 40 percent of the WQS season, four of the top five women in the world are from Hawaii, it’s also misleading. So many points remain available in the next seven contests, especially from the end of May through the end of August. They’re all set up nicely for now, but maintaining a lead is usually even more difficult than gaining one, especially when so many capable surfers are charging for waves.
But it’s a big deal to look at the current WQS rankings and see those familiar faces holding the top spots. Australia has gained so much momentum in the past decade, especially with its huge population. If the Hawaii wahine are able to continue to regain some of that territory at the top, it will be an amazing accomplishment considering some ASP and sponsor biases, as well as the sheer number of competitors they will have to overcome.
