Fighting for her dream

Paige Hareb is the second of five nominees for the 2018 Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year. Helen Harvey has interviewed each of the finalists. The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day.

This year Paige Hareb won a World Surf League qualifying series event in Japan – her first in 10 years.

The 28-year-old, who grew up in Oakura, says she had been fairly confident through the whole event, but didn’t know until the end just how well she had performed.

‘‘I was surfing pretty good and my scores were the highest out of any of the other girls. So I guess you could say I was going into the final as the favourite, but I left it until the last minute. She [her opponent] was winning the final the whole time and neither of us could really hear what was going on.’’

So when Hareb walked out of the water, she didn’t know the result. As she walked up the beach she asked a photographer. He told her she had won, but she wasn’t convinced.

‘‘I didn’t want to get too excited in case he had misheard it,’’ she says. ‘‘But on the stage getting the trophy it was a pretty good feeling.’’

Hareb first qualified for the World Surf League (WSL) World Championship Tour (WCT) in

2009 and was on it for six years before falling off. She fought to get back on via the second-tier World Qualifying Series (WQS), missing out for three years before requalifying again at the end of

2017 for the 2018 season.

Her ability to fight her way back onto the Dream Tour for

2018, secure her spot for 2019 and other successes this year have earned Hareb a nomination for Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year 2018.

And the win in Japan helped her finish fourth in the WQS series, her highest ranking ever.

This puts Hareb in a good position for the WCT next year as she will get better seeding, she says.

‘‘This year in the first and second rounds I’d come up against the higher ranked girls who had won world titles, so hopefully next year I won’t come up against them so soon.’’

And making the win sweeter was that it came after she broke two ribs and thought she was going to be out of the water for a year.

In June, Hareb had gone to Mexico for an event, but didn’t get to compete because a wave slammed her into rocks while she was free-surfing.

She was in a ‘‘hurricane swell’’, she says.

‘‘It was five weeks before I got in the water again. The first couple of weeks weren’t that fun. It’s painful when you breathe or laugh.’’

But she came back to win the WQS event. And get a silver medal at the International Surfing Association World Surfing Games where she represented New Zealand as part of a team of three men and two women.

‘‘Having that team

environment was nice for a change and made it more fun,’’ she says. ‘‘It was pretty different. You just want to do well for your team and your country. There’s almost more pressure, but it’s a nice feeling to do well with them there as well.’’

It was her second team event of the year. The first was the inaugural Founders Cup held at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in California.

Hareb was in Team World with surfers from South Africa, Tahiti and Japan, she says.

‘‘I guess the minority countries in the surfing world. It was pretty good, because we were the underdogs going into it. We didn’t even really expect to be in the final.’’

They had to surf against favourites Australia to make the final, she says.

‘‘We came from behind to beat Team Australia in the surf off, which was pretty exciting. I think every member of their team bar one had a world title to their name. We were pretty happy.’’

Then they went on to win the tournament.

‘‘I think there was more pressure than an individual contest because you don’t want to let the team down. Everyone was surfing amazing.’’

At the wave pool a wave comes through every four minutes, she says.

‘‘That’s it. You can’t miss it. You can’t stuff up. You get one chance. Then the ride is over 100m long. Even the top surfers were buggered at the end of it. There’s definitely a lot of pressure, but I enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun.’’

All three of her wins are close to her heart, she says. ‘‘But, being the first Kiwi to surf and compete at Kelly’s wave pool is pretty special and surreal.’’