Surfing: Moore talent hits Taranaki

Taranaki is awaiting the return of a female friend taken to their hearts last year - 18-year-old world No 1 surfer Carissa Moore, who will defend her ASP women's Dream Tour event, starting tomorrow.

Last year Moore, from Hawaii, became a local hero with the Taranaki surfing community and, after her victory at Fitzroy Beach, gave her $15,000 winning purse to the local Waitara Board Riders Club.

The strong Polynesian connection was evident in the way the local Maori community supported her through the event. The Hawaiian - the current world No 1 - felt right at home both on land and in the powerful waves of Taranaki.

She has already stormed through opponents this year. She won the 2011 Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast recently - putting herself in pole position for the world title race this year.

Moore, who qualified for the Dream Tour at age 17, is a former American age group superstar winning a record 11 US titles in her preliminary years before making her mark on the world tour. She has already won four major ASP events, including Taranaki.

The richest of those was the 2010 US Open of Surfing held at Huntington Beach in California, netting her US$50,000 for her efforts in front of over 100,000 spectators in what is known as the "zoo" of world surfing.

Moore has been compared to the likes of surfing giants Kelly Slater (10-time ASP world men's champion) and Lisa Anderson (four-time women's world champion). Her association with the big names doesn't end there, with the youngster recently signing four-year contracts with sponsorship giants Red Bull and Nike 6.0.

The ASP contest, which will bring the world's top 17 female surfers to Taranaki, is part of the TSB Bank Women's Surf Festival which runs from tomorrow to May 1. Organisers have been pleased to see a growth in interest in the event and its popularity is evident by the 60-odd entrants in the New Zealand Women's Open this year, up from 40 entries in 2010.

The winner of the Open gains a wild card into the ASP tour event and, with heavy Kiwi representation, another New Zealand surfer could upstage the established pros.

Sarah Mason did exactly that last year. She knocked then world champion Stephanie Gilmore out of the event, then beat local hero Paige Hareb in front of her home crowd in the semifinals, before finishing second behind Moore.

Mason, a New Zealand age group representative, continued to set the surfing world on fire and recently she surfed through the trials of the prestigious 2011 ASP Roxy Pro, gaining a wild card into the main event. Mason is back in Taranaki this year and will be hoping to shine again.

Another Hawaiian surfer to watch out for is Alana Blanchard who has returned from two years off the tour.

Blanchard, who hails from the wave-rich island of Kauai, was voted one of the most beautiful female surfers on the planet by Waves Magazine in 2009.

She was a standout surfer in the past and will be looking to secure her place on the Dream Tour for 2012 and beyond. No longer are the women compartmentalised as second-tier at major ASP Events, with the new breed changing the view of women's surfing for good.