Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Paige Alms
particularly in the crunching beachbreak at Barrinha in the early rounds. The 8.33 wave Tatiana Weston- Webb ( who recently changed her nationality from the US to Brazil) pulled off in front of her new ‘ home crowd’ to make the semis was electric. Fellow Brazilian Silvana Lima, who she vanquished in the quarters, had moments too.
The growing power of women surfing extends to big wave too. I was watching the WSL Awards on DStv this week, and the highlights package of Paige Alms, the Hawaiian who was awarded female big wave surfer of the year.
Her achievements, notably in giant Jaws off Hawaii, have set a new milestone, and it can only grow after the WSL wisely decided to have this award. This will grow the small field of core females conquering giant waves, and we’ll be seeing some crazy stuff.
You need to be extremely fit to be a professional champion these days. To get to the final, Gilmore (who holds six world titles), had to battle through four gruelling heats in Brazil during the course of a few hours in solid overhead surf at Itaúna Beach in Saquarema.
Before she had taken down Peterson in the final, she dispatched Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) in the semis, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) in the quarters, and Caroline Marks (USA) in Round 3 for her 28th CT victory (but her first in Brazil).
Despite the loss, Californian Peterson remains in a good position for her first world title, trailing Gilmore by only 3,680 points as the tour reaches halfway at the next event, the Corona Bali Pro.
Sadly, for South African fans, our two- man contingent on the CT were knocked out of the event early. Mikey February was knocked out in Round 2, while Jordy Smith has now made it three 13ths in a row after Brazilian Ian Gouveia took down the big man in Round 3.
You win some and lose some.
There will be fond memories of the Gunston 500 this weekend after a last-minute decision to run the next event in the City Surf Series – the Zigzag Durban Surf Pro presented by G-Force – at North Beach. Organisers are calling this big- gest surfing event to be held in Durban, possibly since the Gunston became the Ballito Pro. New Pier has become a very difficult wave after the harbour breakwater was extended to block even more swell from wrapping into the iconic surf sport. North Beach picks up a big more swell.
Today, the swell picks up from 3’ to 4’ in clean light variable winds. Muizenberg looks smooth – 1’ maybe 2’. Tomorrow, expect 4-5’ west swell in nice northerly winds. Fun waves at some spots. Muizenberg should like it. Offshore 2’ and fun.