We caught up with kiwi pro surfer Paige Hareb in her home of Taranaki after her hugely successful year on the WSL women's tour
When Paige Hareb walks down to the surf at Margaret River, she crosses a step with her name on it.
The Western Australian beach has long hosted a World Surf League event, with past winners etching their names onto the staircase.
In 2008, Hareb added hers when she beat South African Rosy Hodge to win what was then a major stop on the qualifying series. It was a result that launched her career, and she hasn't looked back since.
"I was pretty little back then," she tells the Herald.
"My surfing's gotten stronger, there's more power on my turns, and I'm surfing faster."
Now back at the break as part of the Championship Tour, Hareb will look at add her name to the staircase once more.
The 28-year-old went into the fourth stop of the tour on the back of some of her best surfing this year. After disappointing second-round exits in the first two events of the year, Hareb found some form last week at Keramas, Bali.
Meeting three-time World Champion Carissa Moore in the third round, Hareb fell just short of a big upset - with many people feeling like she had been underscored for her second scoring wave.
"That heat against Carissa was probably my best heat of the year," she says.
"After the heat a lot of people were telling me that (they thought I was underscored), which is pretty hard to hear.
"I saw the judges the next day and we went over it all; how it was scored and what I could've done to improve the score, so I took some notes."
Margaret River will serve up plenty of chances for Hareb to put those notes into action, with a good forecast from Wednesday, which will be the opening day of the contest window. Fellow Kiwi Ricardo Christie is surfing in the men's side of the event looking to continue his solid start in his return to the sport's biggest stage.
Both Kiwis avoided the first of the elimination rounds, earning a free pass the the third round in their opening heats.
Ricardo Christie takes to the air during the Corona Bali Protected in Keramas. Photo / WSL
In recent years, the stop has come before the event in Keramas, but in 2018 there were too many shark sightings and the contest had to be finished in Uluwatu, Bali. The later start at Margaret River should see a decline in shark activity as the salmon season has ended.
Sharks are thought to be more active in Western Australia between March and April as the yearly salmon run goes through the Australian waters, congregating in particular abundance around the Margaret River region. Last year, shark activity was high as there were also two beached whales in the area and two people were attacked at a spot approximately 6km from the contest site.
"Surfing is a sport that carries various forms of risk, and is unique in that wild animals inhabit our performance environment," World Surf League boss Sophie Goldschmidt said in a statement at the time.
"Sharks are an occasional reality of WSL competitions, and of surfing in general. Everyone associated with our sport knows that. There have been incidents in the past -- and it's possible that there will be incidents in the future -- which did not (and will not) result in the cancellation of an event."
