Aloha,
A blog is a blog is a blog. The word comes up misspelled but the idea is to write some crazy extreme mostly logical banter about what bugs ya mind! Well I am full of that lately but let's start with happy news. I feel proud to say one of our Hawaii surfer girls is on top of the WQS heap making a charge for getting on the World Tour of Surfing. Not as easy task for sure. It is extremely hard in this State to be a pro surfer, there are no stable pro events the girls can surf in. The Triple Crown has one event at Haleiwa, which only has 6 Hawaiian trilists in it, only one gets in the event. But Kauai's Alana Blanchard has made a great showing in Australia and is in a respectable 6th place. Things change fast though, the next part of the tour is the most expensive one with events in Brazil and South Africa. I estimated the cost of the tour at about $27,000 and that is the... not going out to dinner price... pretty much rice and beans. Only a two board ship charge, no way! You have to bring 4 boards to be able to compete!
Alana Blanchard
Photo/ASP
So Alana has a long way to go but has the talent to do it. She is two-time Pipeline Champion and was Triple Crown Rookie and never mind being from Kauai. Why are there so many good surfers from Kauai? Did ya ever wonder about that? Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly and let's not leave out Bethany Hamilton!
Bethany Hamilton
Bethany is in 10th place, she is also capable of making the WCT Tour. On the World Tour of Surfing, Triple Crown winner Megan Abubo still is looking solid around 8th place and our other Hawaiian Melanie Bartelsis dragging her feet at the end of the pile, come on Mel you can do it! Bartels lost her biggest sponsor O'Neill Clothing and that, in itself, can hamper your creativity! So back to the cost of the tour. One of my favorite surfers Lani Hunter from Punaluu on Oahu is trying to go on the tour. She is so impressive because she won the Surf Into Summer several times in different divisions and that is a difficult event to win. She is also a World Champion Team competitor. So if ya happen to have an extra 27 grand email me! I would love for her to represent Hawaii and kick some okole.
Lani Hunter/Backdoor Pipeline
A big congratulations goes out to Leah Dawson, who won an amateur event at Sunset Beach recently and it was solid 8 feet and wind blown... gnarley! She took one on the head as well! Go girl! Congrats to all the girls! Check out "Right Spot" the seal! She was the real star at Sunset that whole weekend. A pregnant Mom taking a two day snooze, amazing animals!
“Right Spot” pregnant and happy!
Time flies and the tandem gang is already training for the World Championship coming up along with the Dukes Oceanfest in August. Dukes Oceanfest has announced a new menehune division and has added more women in the Roxy Pro Longboard, a boys Jr. division and more in the stand up paddle divisions. Hopefully Roxy will give away a bigger prize purse for the Women. Also lady surfers, the Steinlager Series has women, oops there is no prize money for the women, only the men. Boycott!
China is still getting together his all girl event, practice for the summer! Surfers do have to be thankful that there is money to be made at all. There is a lot of work to do. The Women's Beach volleyball tour had an event recently in Miami with a $200,000 purse. Now that is a purse! Something to aim for!
So on to the stuff that is bugging me. HCR278 is a resolution put forth by our Legislators to be sure Women get 30% of the surf contest permits on the North Shore! You can read it on wahinebluetv.com. It did not pass the testimony phase and was referred back to the City and County. There was a big discussion and many points were brought up, they did listen. The ACLU is in agreement that it is at least a Hawaii constitutional right to have equal access to the permits by all concerned. The City does acknowledge that there has to be diversity but there is nobody checking to be sure the permit holders do what they say. When they say they have Women they better have the divisions. My problem with it is that still the Women are given bad waves, no money, and moved to the "back of the bus" in some cases. I remember a long time ago when I was a pro, the Contest Director was running a bikini contest during my heat. I don't think the all male panel of judges was watching us surf! That kind of thing still goes on and it's 2008. Done! That is all the bummer stuff I'll spout about here but I would love to hear some of your stories about other sports problems. I did study athletic administration in college and know many sports so heave it on me! I am all ears! Last but not least check the church photo. This church needs to be refurbished and there are some people trying to do just that so pray for it. It is on Haleiwa Beach Road. Aloha! Stay Wet! Check out my videos at wahinebluetv.com.
Banzai Betty
