Paige Hareb with one of the under the lip turns that contributed to her Nias Pro win. Photo WSL/Federico Vanno
Paige Hareb with one of the under the lip turns that contributed to her Nias Pro win. Photo WSL/Federico Vanno
Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb has ridden the waves all the way to New Zealand’s best surf athlete in the New Zealand Surf Journal poll.
Paige takes out the number one spot for 2023 ahead of Billy Stairmand, of Raglan, in second and Te Kehukehu Butler, of Mount Maunganui, in third.
The voting for New Zealand’s 10 Best Surfers is cast across the industry and looks at international and national achievements alongside surf feats throughout the year.
This is the first time a female has been named at the top of the list. Ricardo Christie, of Mahia, previously held the number one spot and remains in the Top 10 despite retiring from competition.
Paige’s performances during the year combined the 32-year-old’s experience with her technical skill in surfing heats and big-wave prowess.
During the 2022 season she won her maiden Open Women’s National Championship (with international commitments preventing her from competing in previous years), she ranked first in the 2022/2023 Australian/Oceania World Qualifying Series and in June of 2022 she won the Nias Pro, Indonesia, in some of the most spectacular waves seen during the World Surf League (WSL) competition year.
Paige Hareb wins the Nias Pro, Indonesia, June 2022. Photo WSL/Tim Hain
New Zealand Surf Journal editor Derek Morrison says her performance at the Nias Pro was world-class.
“With the intensity of those waves and her near-perfect commitment to surfing them, Paige not only made history that day, but she set herself up for an incredible run in 2023. She is the consummate professional, she knows the game better than anyone and she is a superb role model for other surfers.”
Paige was New Zealand’s first female surfer to make the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour when she joined it in 2009.
She remained on tour right through to 2014 – six years straight until she was relegated to the WSL Qualifying Series in 2015. She then rejoined the tour in 2018 until an injury during a free surf in Mexico took her out of contention.
She turned that negative into a positive and re-emerged with an intensity and focus that was crystal sharp, an Olympic spot on her mind. Her back half of the 2018 season was masterful. She re-qualified for the CT and finished second at the ISA World Surfing Games that year.
Paige completed her 2019 WSL Championship Tour season only to be relegated again. Then Covid struck and the surfing world started to unravel. Worse still, Hareb missed out on New Zealand’s one Olympic spot for Tokyo 2020.
Now, with a Nias Pro win under her belt and leading the 2022/2023 Australian/Oceania World Qualifying Series, she once again has one eye on Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.
The surfing is scheduled to take place at the iconic and, at times, frightening reef break called Teahupo’o in Tahiti. Teahupo’o is a wave Paige knows well and enjoys surfing.
Coach Matt Scorringe, of The Art Of Surfing, says Paige’s mental strength and sheer tenacity are what is missing in the New Zealand surf culture.
“She has shown such fight to stay at the top level for longer than any other New Zealand surfer.”
Paige will next compete in the Australian leg of the World Qualifying Series, which begins in February 2023.
