[i]

Photo courtesy of www.aspworldtour.com

Flat seas have again seized Ali’i Beach Park, Haleiwa, home of the 11th Annual Roxy Pro Hawaii, and another lay day has been called. With roughly a week and a half left in the event waiting period and the North Shore’s first sizeable winter swell predicted to hit during the latter portion of this week, event officials are confident that competitors will enjoy first-rate waves once we do get underway.[/i]First to fare the waves once they arrive will be young Hawaiian trialists Bethany Hamilton, Carissa Moore, Tory Titcomb and Chastity Baltazar. The winner of the trials heat will go straight into round one of the main event where she’ll meet reigning world champion and current ratings leader Sofia Mulanovich (PER) and Australian surfer Serena Brooke in heat three.

As one of the final two stops on the women’s World Championship Tour (WCT), points earned here and then in Maui are of the utmost importance to women sitting low on the WCT ratings. Without a solid performance on the Hawaiian leg or a qualifying result on the second tier tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS), a surfer could find herself forced to renegotiate the WQS next year to get back on the WCT the year after.

Make sure you check www.aspworldtour.com and www.roxy.com/roxypro daily to keep up to date on the event status.