Roxy Pro Hawaii: Final Day

EVENTS HELD: Roxy Pro Hawaii, The FINALS
CONDITIONS: 6-foot Sunset, or, as Sofia put it, “Four times overhead.”
NATURE’S CALL: See? Pretty
PREDICTIONS: A world title in Honolua Bay — definitely

There were no champagne showers on the victory stand today. There were no long speeches. Nobody won a world title. Sofia Mulanovich thanked God, her boyfriend, and Martin Potter (in that order) and the collective attention on the beach turned quickly to the handful of men’s heats taking the water out in beautiful, 6-foot Sunset for the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing. Mostly what happened today in the Roxy Pro Hawaii was a bunch of stuff not really happening.

Like, everyone was kinda expecting rookie upstart Stephanie Gilmore to walk away with a world title today — but she went down in the quarters and left the door open for a small crop of chasers. “Yeah, it’s disappointing,” said Gilmore afterwards, “but I had a bad heat. I got caught on the inside a few times. A big set came and I just looked at Jessie thinking I was going to die. I tried to duck under but it just smoked me. Then I got about six more on the head and by that time I only had half a board — it was pretty strenuous.”

Sofia Mulanovich charged to victory at the Roxy Pro Sunset

At the same time, everyone was kinda half expecting local, 16-year-old phenome-grom wildcard Coco Ho to blow our minds with some crazy result out here, but that didn’t happen either, as she finished behind the upset Gilmore in the same quarterfinal. (She was still named 2007 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing Rookie.)

Then, everyone was kinda expecting Megan Abubo to continue her solid Vans Triple Crown campaign, but she went down hard on the first wave of her semi final and came straight back to the beach with some cracked or broken ribs. Ow. She still maintains the Vans Triple Crown lead, but judging from the agonized look on her face and the ambulance she left in, she may not be surfing in the final event in Maui.

Layne Beachely didn’t dominate on her favorite wave (“Frustrating as hell,” said Beachley). Caroline Sarran didn’t show up for her heat (due to a neck injury from yesterday). And Claire Bevilacqua couldn’t find a 0.3 scoring wave to qualify for the final.

So, what did happen?

Well, the world’s best girls were going for broke on some pretty sizeable Sunset — and that’s something. They were out of their comfort zone, caught inside many times, and pitching themselves into some huge ones. Charging it. So, on that front, women’s surfing took another step forward today in the big stuff. Respect.

But what really happened was Sofia Mulanovich. Throughout this contest, everyone’s been trying to do math (and everyone hates math) to figure out who had to lose what when and how before they could just hand Stephanie Gilmore her world title. But you can put your calculators away now, because it ain’t over yet. Mulanovich now sits just 101 points behind Gilmore, which essentially means, whoever finishes higher in Maui, will be the new women’s world champ. (If they both lose early, Brazilian Silvana Lima has a shot, too, but no one else.)

So, as Sofia put on the somewhat non-celebratory victory stand: “It’s on. It’s so on.”

Amy Donohoe (AUS) made it to the finals where she placed second to Sofia Mulanovich (PER).

Roxy Pro Hawaii Final Results:
Final:
Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.73,
Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.83,
Samantha Cornish (AUS) 7.64,
Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 6.40

Ratings after Event No. 7 of 8 on the 2007 ASP Women’s World Tour – the ROxy Pro Hawaii:
1. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 5,868
2. Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 5,767
3. Silvana Lima (BRA) 5,252
4. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 4,440
5. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 4,406
6. Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 4,238
7. Layne Beachley (AUS) 4,214
8. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 3,553
9. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 3,438
10. Melanie Bartels (HAW) 2,976
11. Megan Abubo (HAW) 2,862
12. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 2,784
13. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 2,654
14. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 2,424
15. Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 2,412
16. Caroline Sarran (FRA) 2,322
17. Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 1,530
18. Leilani Gryde (HAW) 972

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