Five-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 2013 Rookie of the year Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) and darkhorse Tatiana Weston-Webb (HAW) took to the water for a historic, first-ever women’s heat at Restaurants and the trio wasted little time establishing themselves over the shallow lefthander.
The lone regular-footer continued to assert her dominance, posting an excellent 8.00 for a flurry of backhand snaps and continued to find her stride, etching an additional 8.33. The South African answered, in need of an excellent 8.90, by detonating a series of committed forehand snaps, but her 8.87 fell just shy of the score needed to surpass Gilmore.
Gilmore advances directly to the Quarterfinals while Buitendag and Weston-Webb are relegated to Round 4.
“When you’re here on the island and you’re seeing these perfect lefthanders out the front it’s beautiful and hard not to have the event here (at Restaurants),” Gilmore said. “It’s a challenging wave but also so mechanical so you can get in a rhythm and do your thing.”
Downtime between sets shortened and a flurry of action between the World No. 1 Carissa Moore (HAW) and the two rookies Dimity Stoyle (AUS) and Alessa Quizon (HAW) erupted every few minutes. Each set featured back-to-back-to-back takeoffs with a slight edge favoring the reigning Champion for her ability to control her rides over the rib-ridden surface.
The lone Aussie in the heat sat on the bottom of the pack despite having the highest single-wave score, a 7.67. By taking a different approach, Stoyle charged down the line and hacked a couple sharp backhand snaps for a midrange six and forcing a lead change. The Hawaiians were in need of a large, workable set but the swell held off. Stoyle, the highest-ranked rookie on Tour, gets a direct advance to the Quarterfinals.
Event organizers have put competition on hold to reassess conditions. Next call will be at 1:15pm FJT for a possible return to competition at 1:30pm.
