Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb breaks back into world tour

Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb is back on the world tour after her qualifying series rivals failed to best her at a pro event in Australia yesterday. Photo / File

Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb is back on the world tour after her World Surf League Qualifying Series rivals failed to best her at a pro event in Australia yesterday.

The veteran had been on the World Championship Tour (CT) for six years before falling out of the rankings at the end of 2014.

For the past three years she's been competing in the Qualifying Series in a bid to get back to the top level.

Finally, on Sunday at the Port Stephens Toyota NSW Pro at Birubi Beach, Australia, she finished fifth overall - putting her in ninth position in the season's rankings.

Hareb still had to wait for the results of other competitors to determine whether she had done enough.

After being eliminated in the quarterfinals, her fate was left in the hands of the Hawaiian CT surfer, Tatiana Weston-Webb.

Fortunately for Hareb, the Hawaiian was able to eliminate The World Junior Champion and tenth Qualifying Series (QS) rank, Macy Callaghan. Thus retaining her ninth place QS ranking.

To compound complication for Hareb and the rest of the New Zealand surf community, whilst the top six of the QS are guaranteed to qualify for the following years CT. If a surfer also requalifies with a top 10 finish on that years CT, the next best surfer on the QS takes their spot.

That left many fans pulling out calculators and scratching heads, unsure whether they were to celebrate or hang their heads.

The complex qualification process meant that three of the women currently above Hareb in QS rankings also requalified via the CT, bumping her up to sixth.

This allows Hareb to sneak in as the final seed for the 2018 Championship Tour season, just as Kiwi Ricardo Christie did, on the men's side of the draw at the end of the 2014 season.

"It's pretty much all confirmed now, the CEO of the WSL [World Surf League] has emailed me, and confirmed it," Hareb said in an interview with the Herald.

The final event of the Women's Championship Tour, The Maui Women's Pro, is set to run between 26 November and 6 December. At the conclusion of this Hareb's name will officially re-join the list of the surfing's elite.

Although Hareb has now achieved her ultimate goal of making it back on the 'Dream Tour,' the hard work is only just beginning.

"I still want to do the QS and hopefully back myself up. I want to stay on the tour for as long as I can now."

In essence, meaning Hareb will have to compete across two different competitions next year, both the QS and CT. This means an enormous amount of travel and (surfboard) baggage fees, all currently to be done without the help of a major sponsor.

"I've got a few smaller sponsors who've helped me out over the last few years, but there's no major one, I'm definitely on the lookout."

All eyes now turn to Christie and his fight to get back on the Tour after he fell off at the end of 2015.

Two qualifying series of 10,000 points are left in the Men's Qualifying Series as it draws to close in Hawaii. Christie will need results in the ballpark of a quarterfinal and a round 5 finish in order to secure his spot back with surfing's elite. Results that are not out of reach, in waves that suit Christie to a tee, at breaks where he found big success in 2014.