Tuesday, December 8, 1998
Aussies rule
at Roxy Pro
They sweep the top three
By Greg Ambrose
places and world champion
Layne Beachley wins the
Triple Crown of Surfing
Special to the Star-BulletinFor the past 14 years, Hawaii's wahine surfers have ended the competition season with a heart-warming tradition of aloha. The sharing tradition continued yesterday, as Australia's Sandie Ryan won the Roxy Pro at Sunset Beach, completing another sweep by visiting surfers of the Vans G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing contests.
And for the second season in a row, the local wahine watched as Layne Beachley, Australian by birth and Hawaii resident by choice, surfed away with the Triple Crown of Surfing title.
Beachley earned this Triple Crown the hard way, watching in agony from shore in the unfamiliar position of rooting against her fellow countrywoman, Pauline Menczer.
Surfing is a sport of seconds, and when Lynette McKenzie caught a wave with 30 seconds remaining in a semifinal heat, Beachley was beached.
That gave Menczer a chance to win the Roxy Pro and take the Triple Crown title away from Beachley by a scant 60 points.
By Pierre Tostee, Special to the Star-Bulletin
Roxy Pro winner Sandie Ryan is hoisted by fellow
Australians Pauline Menczer, left, and Trudy Todd.
To Beachley's vast relief, Menczer placed third. It was a good ending to a long and emotionally draining year in which Beachley won her first world championship months before the season finale yesterday at Sunset.In a Triple Crown wahine series marked by shrieking winds and less-than-harrowing waves, Beachley was rewarded for her perseverance in taking fifth place at Maili Point, second at Haleiwa and fifth at Sunset, a site that for several years has been the scene of her greatest triumphs.
But yesterday's 4- to 5-foot surf was a study in frustration for most contestants. The waves at Sunset Point were more consistent and zippier, while the waves at the west peak 70 yards away were bigger and offered longer rides, but were few and far between.
Savvy contestants could feel the rhythm of the waves and paddle to the best spot at the right time to rack up big points. "I sat in the wrong spot," said Beachley. "I should have sat in the middle peak. I knew where to go, and I just didn't do it.
"I lost my focus and desire at the end. I'm so exhausted, I just want it all to be over."
Waialua's Megan Abubo had her sights set on winning the Roxy Pro and possibly her first Triple Crown title. But she came up short when she shredded a solid wave during her semifinal heat, only to be given a weak 4.5 score for the ride, leaving her to vent her frustration on the beach later.
"When I don't surf good that's one thing, but there were so many discrepancies out there," Abubo said.
There was no ambiguity in Ryan's victory, her first in a World Championship Tour contest. The 27-year-old Australian surfer from Woolongong in New South Wales emerged into the limelight when WCT surfer Pam Burridge left the tour to prepare for the birth of her child.
Ryan was in line to receive Burridge's spot in the Roxy Pro and her place on the WCT next season, and Ryan made the most of her opportunity.
"Sunset has been kind of small, just like where I live. It didn't seem that big a deal to me, so I just surfed like I was at home," said Ryan. "I had nothing to lose, I had already qualified for the WCT. Everyone else had pressure on them to earn points, and I just surfed."
The final was an all-Aussie affair, with Ryan prevailing over Trudy Todd, Menczer, and Lynette MacKenzie. Ryan was pleased with the victory, and doubly pleased to have bested Hawaii's top pros.
"Rochelle Ballard told me that because I qualified for the WCT, I better learn to surf big waves," said Ryan. "Where I live it can get 10 feet anytime, and I surf the big ones there. I thought, why would someone say that to me?
"Then I got Rochelle in my first heat, and I used that as my motivation to beat her. I thought, I'm not going to let her beat me."
She used another, more loving, motivational tool to get through the final heat. "I have two little boys at home waiting for me, and I can't wait to get back to them," Ryan said "I thought of them the whole time I was out in the lineup, that I wanted to be with them. I focused on them, and it worked. I'm so excited for them, I just want to hear their little voices.
"I did my first WCT contest, and I won. Maybe some sponsors will look my way and help me out on the tour. I'll definitely use this victory to motivate me next year."
