FAMILY AFFAIR:
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR SURFING GLAMOUR COUPLE
THEY are the “golden pair” of Gold Coast professional surfing, Bilinga’s Jack Freestone and his Kauaiian partner Alana Blanchard who are recent proud parents of son Banks.
Somehow they manage to balance their hectic professional lives with their family responsibilities, keeping the dream alive and surfing their brains out.
Freestone is a two-times world junior champion who burst on to the international stage with many expectations to follow in the footsteps of Coolangatta world champs Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson but sometimes the script doesn’t always go to plan.
While Freestone qualified for the world tour last year, he failed to requalify for 2018.
So it was back to the long and grinding road of the world qualifying series.
Not to be discouraged and as a proud dad motivated by nappy power, Jack is back with a serious shot of requalifying in 2019 after a runnerup finish at Ballito 10,000 world qualifying series event at KwaZulu in South Africa.
Previously in 158th place, Jack jumped up 15 places and is now sitting in fifth place on the QS rankings.
“I love coming back to Ballito, it’s my favourite event on the QS,” Freestone said.
“I’ve never got past the quarter-finals here before, and to now be fifth on the QS ratings, I’ll take that all day.”
The top 10 surfers at the end of the year will qualify for 2019, together with the top 22 of the World Championship Tour.
Not to be left out of the equation to surf with the best, Alana has been invited as the only female to compete with the boys at the annual 4 Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy.
The unique invitational event features a round-robin format competing on single fins, twin fins and thrusters, at the island of Kuda Huraa, situated on the North of Male atoll, starting on August 7.
“I can’t wait to surf in an empty line-up out there and experience such a beautiful place and event with my partner, Jack, and our baby boy, Banks,” said Alana, a former world tour competitor and one of the most photographed female surfers on the planet.
“I love experimenting with different boards so feel like the format will suit me.
“Doing events is always really fun for me, it’s a good change of pace – and what better place to compete than the Maldives.”
Hard to argue against that.