Being Betty

Being a young aspiring female athlete today is full of great opportunities.  I was just checking through my mail this morning and came across an update from Roxy about the latest Champ Camp held by Lisa Anderson.  The camp was about helping up and coming female surfers take their surfing to the next level.

From camping in Cardiff to Costa Rica, some of the best amateur girl surfers from Latin America and the US came together for a Lisa Andersen Champ Camp at Playa Negra to push each other and learn from the best.

4x World Champion Lisa Andersen identified the top surfers from a selection of online video entries and gave these “future champs” a one of a kind experience. Special guest Sofia Mulanovich—Latin American legend and previous World Champ—joined Lisa Andersen in Costa Rica to provide hands on coaching, instruction, and video analysis that helped advance the girls’ surfing.

Living the life of a professional surfer seems like a dream come true, however like all things in life nothing is given and these girls had to work hard at the Champ camp.  The waves were perfect keeping the stoke high, which is what you need to get up at 5am, get out in the surf for 6am followed by video and one-on-one coaching from Lisa and Sofia. Breakfast didn’t come until 9, and was followed with more surfing and technical analysis and feedback. In the afternoon came cross-training—the future champs practiced yoga and learned the importance of stretching and surf exercises. The daily video review allowed Lisa Andersen to break down everything for the girls and play-back waves and help critique the girls’ surfing. Lisa and Sofia also provided the future champs with media training and interviewing, preparing them for their career as a professional surfer.

The camp was a great success with Nikki Viesins (FL), claiming 2nd place at the East Coast Surfing Championships in the women’s pro division shortly after the Champ Camp and Leilani McGonagle, claiming two national titles in Costa Rica just 5 days after the camp! Plus keep your eyes out for Tatiana Weston-Webb (HI) Surfing America National Champion, Lucia Cosoleto (Argentina), Melanie Guina and Vania Torres who surf for the Peruvian National Team, Leilani Aguirre (Peru), Adela Recordon (Chile) all looking for spots on the tour in the near future.

Whether it is surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking or any other action sport the girls are taking center stage and showing the guys that we are stepping it up.  These up and coming girls are holding their own and laying down tricks that the average guy would love to be able to do!!  With more Champ camps being held and the older girls providing opportunities for the younger girls I am excited to be apart of the future of Women's Action Sports!

Congratulations on Winning again, Sally!

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 10:23 AM PDT

From the Roxy Blog

ASPworldtour.com

Yesterday Carissa Moore competed in her first heat at the Vans World Cup of surfing. 

Up against the boys Carissa was pitted against Sunny Garcia (13.93) def Mitchel Coleborn (10.00), Carissa Moore (7.83) and Alain Riou (5.60).  Unfortunatly, Carissa's heat was plagued with a lack of waves from the beginning and after a brief flurry of waves where Carissa posted her first scores, the surfers spent the rest of their heat waiting for a chance to post a score.  The waves she did catch were impressive showing the crowd that she could stand her ground with the boys and given one of the waves that Sunny or Mitch got they would have been in trouble! 

Can't wait to see her out there again and hopefully she gets another chance to ruffle the boys feathers in future competitions now she has points on the board it is just a matter of time before we see her in with the boys again. 

Check out her heat here.

Check out this great video of Carissa leading up to her first competition with the boys at the Reef Hawaiian Pro last week at Haleiwa.   

She did awesome, although she did not get through her first heat it was not due to her lack of skill or ability!  It was all about getting the few good waves coming through and unfortunatly she was not able to get one to show the judges what she could do!   Here is the footage from her heat.

Carissa is up again in the second competition of the Triple Crown, the Vans World Cup keep an eye out for her in Heat 14, Round of 96 - Watch it Live here

HONOLULU, Hawaii (November 10, 2011) - Assigning a coveted wildcard for the most prestigious men’s pro surfing series on Earth to a woman could be viewed as contentious, but not if that woman is reigning ASP world surfing champion Carissa Moore. After all, Carissa has been competing against the world’s best women since she was 11 years of age – about the same time she was competitively mixing it up with her male peers like John John Florence and Kolohe Andino in a bid to push her performance level higher.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, which starts this Saturday*, has granted Moore wildcards into the $145,000 Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa (Nov. 12-23), and the $250,000 Vans Hawaiian Pro at Sunset Beach (Nov.25-Dec.6). She is the first woman in history to be given the honor. Each of these events will showcase the talents of more than 120 of the world’s leading male surfers… and the world’s best woman. It’s quite likely that Carissa will find herself shredding the waves and center-stage with old friends Florence and Andino again.

Before the ASP women’s World Tour hit its final stop in Huntington Beach California back in August, Moore had already been crowned world champ. She totally dominated the 5.5-month, 7-event tour with three wins and six finals to become Hawaii’s first female world champion in 30 years. She was also the youngest women’s world surfing champion in history at 18. Anyone who ever paid attention to her surfing knew it was coming, and sooner rather than later.

Carissa returned home from the tour in August to the news that there were no rated events to support the women’s Vans Triple Crown series this year, and therefore nowhere to perform for her home crowd. It was a true disappointment and a lost celebration for Vans, too. A tough economy and a slow period in the women’s surf market saw sponsors of the Hawaii events fall away. Vans offered to put on a paid series of three specialty events for a select group of ladies, but the women’s tour opted against it, stipulating rated events or nothing.

“It was 1981 when Hawaii’s last world champion, Margo Oberg, raised the trophy here – years before we ever had a women’s Triple Crown,” says Vans Triple Crown Executive Director, Randy Rarick. “This was to be Carissa’s year… Hawaii’s year… and it was devastating for us to realize that there would be no stage for her. So after the ladies declined the specialty series, we realized our last card was a wildcard, and we were truly ecstatic to make that genuine offer to Carissa.”

With wisdom and wits to match her talent on the waves, Moore is aware of the double-edged sword she has been handed:

“Everyone will have a different perspective and I’ve definitely heard some mixed reviews,” says Moore of the talk about her wildcard. “But I’m excited and looking forward to it and hopefully that shows. I want to drive home that if there were events for the girls, I wouldn’t be surfing in the guys events. But I think if a woman can (compete with the men) in a very respectful way, then it’s appropriate. And if Kelly (Slater) would like to surf in one of our events, we’d welcome him,” she says with a smile.

“I don’t mind if I lose out there at Sunset or Haleiwa in a heat, I just want to surf there. I won the world title but I won it away from home and would love to have finished it here. The waves in Hawaii bring a different element to your surfing. You have to step it up with the different variables and bigger waves. I’m just excited to surf in front of a home crowd.

“These opportunities to surf with the best surfers are really important. That’s how our sport evolves – by watching and being inspired by your peers. I love the challenge of surfing, of riding a wave and pushing yourself. It’s important as an athlete to be in that environment, to strive to be better.

“It will definitely be cool to share waves with some of the guys I surfed with from our mini grom days – John John (Florence), Kolohe (Andino), and all those guys who I’ve looked up to since I was little.”

And if you think she’s going to be out of her league, think again. At 12 years of age, in a post-heat interview at Haleiwa during the women’s Triple Crown of 2004, after losing to some of the world’s best women of the time, she was far from daunted:

“I’m only 12, I’ve got more years to keep trying,” she said, still visibly disappointed in herself for losing. “It wasn’t that different to other contests really, the girls were just bigger.”

Perhaps it won’t be Carissa who will be nervous next week…

From: ASP International

Sarah Mason Climbs World Rankings After Third Placing

Sarah Mason - Image ASP / Will Hayden-Smith

Sarah Mason has rocketed up the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women's World Rankings to fifth after placing third at the Sri Lankan Airlines Pro completed at Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka yesterday (Sunday 4^th September).

Mason jumped up five places on the rankings and now has a serious chance of qualifying for the 2012 ASP Women's World Title Tour as a spritely 16-year-old surfer. Should Mason qualify she will become the second youngest surfer ever to qualify for the tour behind Tyler Wright (AUS) who qualified this year also as a sixteen year old.

Mason steamrolled her way through an impressive line up of international surfers at the six-star event that was held in Sri Lanka. It was the first time the ASP Women's World Tour had frequented Sri Lanka with Arugam Bay providing a perfect right hand point break wave which clearly suited the young goofy foot surfer.

Mason was eliminated in the semifinals by American surfer Lakey Peterson 12.75 vs 10.20. Peterson went on to place second to Courtney Conlogue (USA) in the final.

Before her loss, Mason eliminated ASP World Title Tour surfer Jessi Miley - Dyer (AUS) in the quarterfinals.

"It was kind of slow so I knew I had to get the right waves," Mason said. "I'm trying not to think about the semis, I just want to keep going under the radar" added Mason before her narrow loss to Peterson.

Early in the event Mason also defeated 2004 ASP World Champion Sofia Mulanovich (PER), event wildcard Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) and young French upstart Alize Arnaud. She also beat Peterson in the early rounds of the event but the two surfers progressed through to the next round and later met up in the semifinals where Peterson exacted revenge for her earlier defeat.

The result secures back-to-back third placings for Mason, her last being at the Swatch Girls Pro in France held during June. Mason also placed ninth at an event in Australia earlier in the year.

Paige Hareb (Tara) also contested the Sri Lankan event placing 13th after being defeated by Nage Melamed (HAW) and Lakey Peterson. Hareb is now ranked eighth on the Women's World Rankings and is also well in contention to requalify for the 2012 ASP Women's World Title Tour.

There are two further events to contest before the end of year rankings will be finalised. The Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro will be contested from the 15^th of September. The Billabong Azores Island Pro is scheduled to take place from the 26^th of September.

Mason and Hareb need to finish inside the top six surfers on the rankings to qualify for the 2012 ASP Women's World Tour.

From: Surfing New Zealand
Sport: International Surfing
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