“It’s been a
dream to win
since I was a
grommet”
Photo Ben Whitmore
~ Gabriel Medina.
Photo Cestari/ASP
Photo Ben Whitmore
Photo Kirstin/ASP
the Semifinals and went on to
take down South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag in the Final. It
was Buitendag’s first ASP WCT
Final appearance, but it was
Gilmore’s day, with the local
lass peaking when it counted with her unique brand of
powerful and beautiful surfing helping her post excellent
scores.
“I haven’t felt this feeling in a
while,” said Gilmore. “It’s the
best feeling in the world to
have all your friends and family around and hi-five everyone. I paddled up to Joel (Parkinson) before my heat to
get some of his good vibes
because he kept getting so
many great barrels. From the
beginning of the heat I had
it in my head that it’s only
30 minutes and I only had to
catch two good waves and
just have fun. So that’s what I
did. Winning the heat against
Carissa was such a big confidence booster for me. It’s
going to be a long hard year
but I’ll do as much as I can to
try and win the Title.”
“I’m so overwhelmed by this
experience. It’s a first time for
me and I didn’t quite know
what to expect,” said Buitendag. “It’s a bit like a dream for
me. I’m giving my prize money to charity. We are so lucky
and we have so much already.
It goes along way.”
Mick Fanning, reigning threetime ASP World Champion was
eliminated in the Quarterfinals
by Gabriel Medina in an exciting goofy verse regular matchup. Fanning took an early lead
and looked as though he was
destined for the Semifinals,
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but Medina had other plans,
stealing the momentum of the
heat and a Semifinal matchup against Taj Burrow with an
excellent 9.40 (out of a possible 10).
“I knew the wave he got was
going to be a good one and I
was out of position so I just
had to sit and wait to see what
he scored,” Fanning said. “All
credit to him (Gabriel Medina)
even if you get a great wave,
you still have to surf it to get
big scores. It’s a lot harder out
in the water than it looks from
the sand. That’s the way it was
and I just have to look at what I
did wrong and learn and move
on.”
event Champion, Stephanie
Gilmore. The highly anticipated heat was a clash of the
titans, with a collective seven
ASP Women’s World Titles in
the water. The local hero eliminated Moore who, up until
today, was the form surfer of
the event. Moore leaves the
event with an equal third place
finish.
“I’m going to have to go away
and look at what went wrong,”
Moore said. “I’ve had such a
great event and I was feeling
really good but it just didn’t go
my way today. I’m going home
disappointed, but I lost in the
Semifinals last year and still
won the ASP World Title so I’m
positive about the year ahead.”
Reigning ASP Women’s World
Champion, Carissa Moore was
eliminated in the first Semifinal of Roxy Pro Gold Coast by
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