It’s been a while since Alana Blanchard had some success in a contest setting. The former Championship Tour competitor took almost all of 2015 off from pro surfing after a particularly difficult 2014 season. Her ability always remained evident, but
It’s been a while since Alana Blanchard had some success in a contest setting. The former Championship Tour competitor took almost all of 2015 off from pro surfing after a particularly difficult 2014 season. Her ability always remained evident, but she was consistently getting outpointed, mostly due to wave selection and execution.
That has begun to change this week at the Taggart Women’s Pro during Surfest in Newcastle, Australia.
Blanchard surfed just two events last year, bringing her ranking down to where she is now in the unfamiliar position of competing in round one. Her opening heat was a struggle, but she managed to finish strong and score well on her final two waves to take second place behind heat winner Silvana Lima.
Round two was a better showcase and she snapped off an eight-point ride on her first wave, propelling to a 14.50 heat-winning total. She and runner-up Freya Prumm survived to advance ahead of former world champion Sofia Mulanovich.
These first two rounds represent the first heats Blanchard has made since the 2013 Roxy Pro France. She tied for 10th on the CT that season, including a pair of quarterfinal appearances to start the year, so it must certainly feel good to again be rewarded for her efforts.
Blanchard has seen a number of other Kauai wahine surpass her in the rankings, including a large group all competing at Surfest. Bailey Nagy and Mainei Kinimaka have each received byes into round three, so they and Blanchard will all be back in the water when action resumes. Brianna Cope gets the jump all the way to round four, along with Championship Tour regulars Malia Manuel and Tatiana Weston-Webb.
The CT is represented very well at this QS 6,000 event, with locals Stephanie Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons, Laura Enever, Nikki Van Dijk and Keely Andrew in the field, as well as Coco Ho, Johanne Defay, Alessa Quizon, Sage Erickson and Chelsea Tuach. It’s about as tough a field as the QS will enjoy all season, so Blanchard getting a few early wins to build her confidence is now a benefit, rather than what could have been an early disadvantage.
On the men’s side, Koa Smith was able to move through his opening round, but was eliminated in a back-and-forth round two heat.
The top two positions seemed to change with every exchange between Smith, Pedro Henrique and eventual heat winners Cooper Chapman and Josh Moniz.
Sebastian Zietz followed shortly thereafter and looked great, dominating the majority of his heat. He opened up a solid lead with a pair of back-to-back beauties and absolutely tagged his final ride for a 9.50 — the best wave of the heat.
His variety of textbook turns, wraps and a solid aerial showed off the complete Seabass repertoire as he moves into round three with a 17.33 total.
Action from Newcastle can be seen live on Oceanic Surf Channels 250 and 1250.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
