Blanchard torches Pipe

Princeville’s yesterday, held at line in wave face Alana Blanchard made history by winning the firstever women’s shortboard competition at the T & C Surf Women’s Pipeline Championship the famous Banzai Pipe-heights of four to eight feet.

With the NSSA Hawai‘i regionals coming up later this week at Pine Trees, Blanchard will definitely be the front-runner for her division in the talent-rich competition. The longboard final was taken out by Californian Kim Hamrock (Huntington Beach), the oldest competitor in the event at 44 years of age. With the win, Blanchard received $500 and a brand new surfboard.

The 15-year-old was somewhat of a surprise champion in the shortboard division, eliminating world No. 8 ranked Melanie Bartels and four other women to claim first place. Conditions in her final were a little inconsistent, offering only the occasional barrel and not a whole lot of open-faced rides. But Blanchard found her way onto the longest, cleanest waves to emerge a clear-cut champion of the event. She surprised none more than herself with the win.

“I just wanted to come here and do the best I could,” Blanchard said of her intentions for the competition. “I didn’t think I had that many good rides, but I guess it was the same for everyone.”

Blanchard’s top two scores of 6.83 and 6.33, each out of a possible 10, pushed her 2.5 points clear of second placed Crystal Dzigas (Honolulu). Third place was 14-year-old Punalu’u surfer Ashley Hunter, followed by Brenda Fried (Haleiwa), Melanie Bartels (Waianae), and Kim Hamrock (California) in fourth through sixth respectively. The overall consensus was that the inaugural T & C Surf Women’s Pipeline Championship was a total success. As the first-ever standalone women’s surfing event at Pipeline, offering three separate division, the event attracted a total of 96 competitors from nine nations.