Killer Dana Board Society

Rip Curl’s Alana Blanchard has just claimed victory at the Reef Hawaiian Women’s Pro at Haleiwa, the first stop of the 2009 Triple Crown.

“Alana has been been having an okay rookie year—equal 9ths in every event. But the Women’s Tour is a lot smaller than the Men’s Tour, so staying on means putting up a few big results. Sitting at 13th at the moment, she’s in need of a few solid results in these last two events. Well, yesterday she stamped her authority all over the Women’s Vans Triple Crown of Surfing by taking the Vans Hawaiian Pro, giving her an early lead for the Triple Crown. Though the win won’t help her up her ratings to stay on Tour for next year (no ‘QS points), it will give her a huge boost of confidence heading into the rest of the Triple Crown.

The lone Hawaiian in the final, Alana faced three women who each had at least one world title to their names (Steph Gilmore, Becca Woods, and Sofia Mulanovich). The mentality we thought she would be taking was the “Hey I’ve made it to the final. That’s a great result.” But that wasn’t what Alana had in mind.

Photo courtesy CI/ASP Scholtz via Getty Images

Though Haleiwa wasn’t anywhere near perfect, Alana was controlling the sporadic lefts all day long and getting some of the biggest scores on them. Trailing the current 2x Women’s World Champ Steph Gilmore with about five minutes left, Alana picked off another one of those lefts. The runner allowed her multiple fluid swoops on her good-looking backside resulting in a 7.83. She had snatched the lead from the woman hailed as the best women’s surfer, giving Alana the biggest victory of her career.

Photo courtesy of Sarvias

If Alana can carry this momentum throughout the rest of the Triple Crown, she’ll be surfing with them best of them. And to stay with the best of them she’s going to have to keep it up. Congrats Alana!”

Thanks to Ryan Brower at Transworldsurf.com for this great article!