World stage beckons Gisborne surfers

GISBORNE surfers are in the international limelight this month.

Ricardo Christie continues his campaign to requalify for the elite World Surf League Championship Tour, battling it out on the shortboard at the Pantin Classic Galicia Pro this week in Spain.

He convincingly won his Round 2 heat in overhead waves on Wednesday before coming a close third in Round 3 yesterday and failing to advance.

In only four days he will be up and surfing again at the Azores Airlines Pro at Santa Barbara, São Miguel Island, Azores.

The Qualifying Series (QS) event offers the winner a valuable 6000 points towards qualification for the 2018 CT.

Christie sits in 11th place on 10,500 points, mostly made up of 5200 from his US Open result and 3000 for his win at the Martinique Pro.

He will need three more solid results to make the cut.

Following the Azores competition his next chance to earn some major points will be the EDP Billabong Pro Cascais 2017 in Portugal, beginning on September 26.

That competition offers a maximum of 10,000 points. Strong results in the next two competitions would set Christie up nicely going into the back end of the QS.

Also in Europe are our top stand-up paddleboarders, sisters Stella and Gold Coast-based Jasmine Smith, and Sean Hovell, who are taking on the world’s best in Denmark.

They will be competing in the 2017 International Surfing Association (ISA) World StandUp Paddle (SUP) and Paddleboard Championships at Vorupør, situated on the north-west coast of the country and known as “Cold Hawaii”.

Hovell will compete in the open men’s SUP surf division, while Stella will take on the open women. It will be the first world championships for both of them.

Jasmine returns for her second world championships, and will compete in the paddleboard technical race.

The 10-day event begins today.

It has been a pretty fun week at home with a chunky east swell hovering around with light winds.

The weekend forecast is looking pretty dismal, however, with some funky east swell sticking around but with variable, mostly onshore winds.

For those reasons it is highly unlikely the Mike Lewin Shapes Surf Competition, on hold indefinitely for the best waves possible, will run this weekend.

See you out the back.