Gilmore wins

Steph Gilmore got a little bit of revenge for losing the world title by beating Carissa Moore in the final of the Roxy Pro. This is Gilmore's best result this year.

New World Champ

Carrissa Moore has just won the womens world championship in France after outgoing champ Steph Gilmore has just beaten the only other women with a shot, Australia's Sally Fitzgibbon in the semis.

The Roxy Pro should finish today as there is only the final between Moore and Gilmore to go. The womens longboarders are in the water now.

Moore is one of the new breed of surfers and rips pretty hard. She is at home in big waves and punting in little ones. She was one of the first star surfers to get mainstream sponsorship, signing with Target and Nike 6.0. Her win will help push Nike deeper into the action sports market. 

Leave a message

Nike have released a surf movie "Leave a Message" for free download in both normal and high definition. The movie stars Nike's sponsored female surfers including Coco Ho, Carissa Moore and Laura Enever. Each of the six girls gets her own one song segment and there is some good surfing by most of them.

A few years ago most blokes surf movies would contain some of the better sequences so it is great to see womens surfing reach a point where it is worth watching. You can be really picky and find some obvious style faults in a couple of the surfers but at the end of the day most of you will never surf anywhere as good as they do.

Get to the movie by clicking here.

If you don't believe how far womens surfing has come watch this video staring four World Champs and WA's Jodie Cooper at Tavarua.

Bells

Watched a bit of Bells from my hotel room in Naples, Italy. It is on in the very early morning but I have picked up the odd heat before breakfast and some of the heats on demand.

Looks like decent surf for the first time in the last few years. If the men's finals are run tomorrow as planned it will be the first time for a while that the event has stayed at Bells (Winki counts as staying) and run straight through.

Sally Fitzgibbons has won the women's event from Carissa Moore. Steph Gilmore made the semis. The title race could have some contenders this year.

The judging has come under some scrutiny with Bobbie Martinez complaining even after winning against Taj in round two. It is very difficult to work out how some rides are being scored. I don't think one hugeish snap that is on a poor choice of wave or that put you behind the running wall and you kick out is better than a number of hacks down the line. Mick Fannins first 9 in round four was deserving but his second, maybe not.

Final tomorrow. Watch it online or FuelTV.

Ciao

New girls and epic battles

The Roxy Pro finished today with the new crop staking a claim in 2011. Steph Gilmore lost to new comer Laura Enever in the quarters as did stalwarts Slivana Lima and former world champ Chelsea Hedges. The only "rookie" to go down was Coco Ho to Sally Fitzgibbons. Sally (20 and in her 3rd season) didn't last another heat getting beaten by Carissa Moore. The final was between Moore and Owen Wright's more successful little sister Tyler with the American taking home the bacon.

The semi consisted of a 17, 18, 19 and 20 year old with a combined four years on tour. Wright and Enever are both in their first world tour events as proper members rather than wildcards. Changing of the guard ?

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.34
2 – Tyler Wright (AUS) 14.37

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) 17.53 def. Laura Enever (AUS) 11.84
SF 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) 16.00 def. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 14.50

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) 11.77 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 10.44
QF 2: Laura Enever (AUS) 15.67 def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.50
QF 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 19.20 def. Coco Ho (HAW) 14.50
QF 4: Carissa Moore (HAW) 18.37 def. Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 11.83


The Quiksilver Pro ran in some nice but flukey conditions. Both the non-elimination round four and round five ran. Round five had some super close heat and a classic between Taj Burrow and Adriano de Souza. The final combined heat score between the two of them was 38 out of 40 with both both holding two nines !!!! The only real name to fall out today was Parko in a close one to Jordy, who eats up drivey crumbling rights.

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 14.07, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.83, Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.80
Heat 2: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.53, Michel Bourez (PYF) 11.14, Kelly Slater (USA) 11.06
Heat 3: Brett Simpson (USA) 16.60, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.63, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.87
Heat 4: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 15.23, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.76, Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.56

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 5 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.80 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.60
Heat 2: Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.27 def. Michel Bouez (PYF) 12.94
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 19.06 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 18.94
Heat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.67 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.17

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS:
QF 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
QF 2: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
QF 3: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Taj Burrow (AUS)
QF 4: Alejo Muniz (BRA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)

New guard wins in Portugal

Carissa Moore has won the Rip Curl Pro by beating Steph Gilmore. Between them they have won all bar one event this year. Gilmore is set for another World Title but Moore may be the competition she needs in the next few years.

The final were held at a backup venue in waves that were decent and with good size. Although she is small, WA's Clare Bevilaqua, who had a great event finishing third, was taking waves in he quarter final that was easily double overhead. Although the size was there they were a bit fat and sectioning and not giving much room for big vertical whacks. It was a bit like a brown version of the left at Marge's.

The big storm predicted has apparently hit and the swell has jacked. One of those European news programs on SBS had footage of big waves bashing the coast but who knows what they were saying ! The men are set to run today at Supertubos if the wind backs off.

Contest frenzy

The fourth womens CT event starts tomorrow. The Beachley Classic is usually held in crap suburban beach break waves but is the second stand alone event in the last two weeks. Carissa Moore won last week in New Zealand in ok but small surf after Steph Gilmore was knocked out by a wildcard early in the event. Its hard to get excited about these events because the waves really make it hard to show any decent surfing.

Heat 1: Chelsea Hedges (AUS), Carissa Moore (HAW), Amee Donohoe (AUS)
Heat 2: Silvana Lima (BRA), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), TBA
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), Nikita Robb (ZAF)
Heat 5: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Paige Hareb (NZL), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 6: Melanie Bartels (HAW), Coco Ho (HAW), Bruna Schmitz (BRA)

The men are in Brazil on Friday for the first Billabong event. Billabong have taken over after the local sponsor pulled out at the last moment. This event was moved to winter to try and get some decent waves. Last year it was crap and this year will probably be the same. And it will probably look cold and un-Brazil like on the beach as well. This was the worst webcast last year and it looks like it will be again as Billabong hasn't had the time get its team there.

On the plus side with the change in judging this year the event should be even more tailor made for Taj, Slater, Jordy and Dane.