Stephanie’s still riding high
30-year-old surfing legend not about to slow down any time soon
IF SIX-TIME world champion Steph Gilmore had any ideas about her pro surf career slowing down in her thirties, her first win at the Oi Rio Pro in Brazil will certainly have put an end to such thoughts.
Now, with her second solid win of the season, “Happy” Gilmore has even more reasons to smile. Her lead on the Jeep Leaderboard world rankings increased substantially over Californian Lakey Peterson at an event where she had struggled to win in well over a decade.
Gilmore arrived in Brazil in second place behind rankings leader Peterson, a week ago, fresh from her stint in Kelly Slater’s Founders Cup event and will leave South America with the Jeep Leader’s Yellow Jersey so tightly fitted she may never have to take it off in the race for the 2018 world title.
Equal third in Rio were Australian Nikki van Dijk and Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb who fell to Gilmore and Peterson respectively in the semi-finals.
Winning her first of six world titles during her 2007 rookie season, Gilmore became the first surfer – male or female – to accomplish such a feat.
Australian Layne Beachley still holds the record for the most world title wins, with seven to her name. Beachley’s most dominant years on tour were from 1999 through 2006 where she won six world titles consecutively from 1999 through 2004. She skipped a year in 2005 and then won again in 2006.
Matching or breaking Beachley’s impressive run of seven world titles now seems more achievable than ever for Gilmore. Should she equal Beachley’s record, the next record in sight for her would be to go after Kelly Slater’s 11 world titles. At 30 years old it would at first appear to be a daunting task for Gimore to win another five world titles. But seeing just how competitive Slater is at age 46, the record attempt remains a strong possibility given Gilmore’s renewed commitment and motivation to be at the top of her game.
Next up on the Women’s WSL Championship Tour is stop five of 10, the Corona Bali Pro at Keramas, in Bali, Indonesia from May 27-June 9 followed by the Corona Open J Bay from July 6-16.
The fourth event in Africa’s 2018 men’s Qualifying Series takes place this weekend at Durban’s North Beach: the Zigzag Durban Surf Pro presented by G-Force which features a QS 1,000 and Junior QS 1,000 event for both men and women.
With three of seven events in the City Series already complete and four events still to run the Skullcandy Leaderboard sees Jordy Maree (Cape Town) topping the rankings ahead of David van Zyl (Durban), Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) and Dale Staples (St Francis). LATEST: In the Mens division of the Oi Rio Pro, Brazilian Filipe Toledo stormed to victory in the final yesterday scoring a convincing win over Australian Wade Carmichael in barrelling two metre right handers at Saquarema.
Toledo jumped up seven placings on the world rankings, into second place, behind Australian Julian Wilson who maintained his top position.
Durbanite Jordy Smith slipped to 25th on the world rankings after a string of equal 13th places in the first four events of the season.