Carissa Moore put in yet another solid performance at Margaret River while Tatiana Weston-Webb’s win catapulted her into a clear second in the standings, but something of a bottleneck has developed thereafter. Of course, with only the top five surfers earning a spot to the season-ending event at Trestles in a few months’ time, competition for spots is fierce, and there isn’t a whole lot between Steph Gilmore in third and the trio of surfers in equal ninth. As a result, the upcoming event at Rottnest – the final of the Australian leg of the tour and almost certainly the most unique – takes on a huge amount of importance, so let’s take a look at who might be competing for the points at the business end.
The Favourites
Carissa Moore could probably be locked into favouritism for every event for the rest of the season right now. In the four events so far she’s finished second, first, third and third, and it’s hard to imagine Rottnest will be any different, particularly if there is a lot of swell – conditions in which she excels. She demonstrated that in the early stages at Margaret, putting together the best scores (both in terms of heat total and individual wave) of both the Seeding Round and the Round of 16. A 14.57 in the quarterfinals was solid enough too, and she only fell short of advancing through to the finals by the barest of margins against Steph Gilmore. Her form is as consistent as anyone on tour and she is deservedly seen as the one to beat at Rottnest.
There are a queue of surfers capable of doing just that, and with the form she is in, Weston-Webb has to be one of the most likely among them. She was brilliant at Margaret River, taking to the heaving conditions with aplomb and putting together two heat scores in excess of 16 (including in the final) and three individual waves of 8.5 or more. The powerful goofy footer should relish the conditions on Rottnest Island, and having made the finals in two successive events is the in-form surfer on tour. Now second to Moore in the standings, she’s got a good chance to really entrench herself in the top five with a good performance in this event.
Given she is just 19 years of age, it’s somewhat expected that Caroline Marks’ performance will ebb and flow a little more than some of her competitors, and that’s certainly been the case so far this season. After being knocked out in the Round of 16 in Hawaii, she finished third in Newcastle before winning in Narrabeen, but unfortunately she followed that up with another Round of 16 loss at Margaret River. But that loss shouldn’t exactly have alarm bells ringing in the Marks camp – she still put together a score of 14 in that round, which would have been enough to win all but her heat and one other that round. The best of this prodigious young talent is arguably as good as anyone in the world, meaning she’s a chance heading into every tournament.
The Next Tier
Tyler Wright has been one of the favourites for virtually every other event so far this year, and while she could still rightly claim to be one of the best hopes, the above three have overtaken her based on recent performances. After winning Pipeline in December last year she has struggled in Australia, finishing ninth, ninth and fifth in the three events. She looked a little scratchy at Margaret River, and ironically it was during her best performance of the event in the quarterfinals that she was eliminated by a red-hot Weston-Webb. Everybody knows that the talent is there for the 2x world champion and the form will likely come at some stage, but it’s been a disappointing Australian leg for Wright and she’ll be desperate to turn it around at the last event on her home soil.
Another Aussie, Steph Gilmore, bounced back to form at Margaret River after what had been a solid but unspectacular first three events of the season. Somewhat similarly to the likes of Jordy Smith and Julian Wilson on the men’s side, the 33-year-old hadn’t been surfing badly but had been failing to put together scores of more than 12 or 13, and was resultantly consistently being eliminated once things stepped up a notch in the quarterfinals. Invariably that brings about some question marks as the seven-time world champion nears her mid-30s, but she answered them at Margaret. She scraped through the early rounds with a couple of middling scores but hit the boost button in the quarters, surfing her way to a massive 9.5 en route to a heat score of 15.73 against Sally Fitzgibbons. She scraped over the line in slightly poorer conditions against Carissa Moore in the semis – no mean feat – and was very good in the final with a score of 15, a number which was just bested by Weston-Webb. She appeared to have turned a corner at that event and will look to keep it going on Rottnest Island.
Courtney Conlogue was a surprise loser in the first Elimination Round at Margaret River, but she was a touch unlucky. In a three-woman heat she scored 11.44, only to be beaten by an 11.97 and a 12.5. Prior to that she’d been performing really well, having finished third in Narrabeen and fifth in Newcastle. Such a consistent performer, she is typically there or thereabouts at the pointy end of most tournaments, and will look to dust herself off from a disappointing early exit last event with a strong showing on Rottnest.
The Roughie
Johanne Defay has been solid without setting the world on fire so far this year, and has finished in fifth place at all three tournaments in Australia thus far. She could have easily advanced further at Margaret River though – she tied with Bronte Macauley in the quarterfinal, but lost on a countback because the highest individual wave score was one of her opponent’s. The goofy footed Frenchwoman has typically shown a penchant for surfing her frontside, something she is likely to be doing in this event, and if she can continue her solid form it would be no surprise to see her in the final four, if not the final.
With so many surfers competing for so few spots in the top five, each and every competition in this condensed season is taking on added importance, and The Search at Rottnest Island will be no different. It will be a unique event taking place way out in the Australian wilderness, and with the result carrying such significant consequences for so many surfers, this looms as one of the events of the season to date.
