ASSOCIATED PRESS / CUNNINGHAMPHOTOS.COM Fifteen-year-old Alana Blanchard won the T&C Women's Pipeline Championship shortboard division yesterday at Ehukai Beach. It was the first championship meet for female surfers at the famous Banzai Pipeline break on Oahu's North Shore.

Blanchard scores at Pipe

With its extremely steep and hollow waves breaking over a barely submerged reef just yards offshore, the Banzai Pipeline is considered surfing's premier arena.

And for the first time, women from all three major disciplines of the sport -- shortboarding, longboarding and bodyboarding -- were able to take the Pipeline stage to showcase their skills in competition at the T&C Women's Pipeline Championship.

An international field of almost 100 women participated in the two-day event at the hallowed North Shore spot, and it concluded yesterday in 4- to-10-foot-face waves.

"This is the biggest step, a dream come true," said Melanie Bartels of Waianae, currently the eighth-ranked women's surfer in the world. "We always see these places so crowded, and it's so hard to catch waves. But this wave is so sick (good), and we just feel blessed to be able to surf it with just five other chicks (at a time). This is our arena where we're supposed to show our talent."

Bartels, 22, was the only surfer currently competing on the elite World Championship Tour to participate in the event. She is home for her son's birthday and decided to take part in the first-time shortboarding division -- finishing in fifth place with hopes that the event becomes part of the international tour.

Women's bodyboarding events have run for years at Pipeline, but many considered the break too dangerous for women's shortboarding and longboarding, which both involve standing up while riding.

While contest organizer Betty Depolito made sure to run the event in waves that weren't close to as big or as dangerous as Pipeline can offer, the women made the most of their opportunity -- with a few, like Honolulu's Crystal Dzigas, scoring the big barrel rides the spot is known for.

"I paddled my hardest, stood up and I was just in there," said Dzigas of a solid 10-foot right she nabbed in the section known as Backdoor during the shortboarding final. She received 5.83 points (out of 10 maximum) for that ride and 4.83 for another to finish with 10.66 for her top two rides and another second-place finish to add to the one she picked up in longboarding.

"Normally we wouldn't get to sit on the peak at Pipeline and catch set waves," the 21-year-old Dzigas added. "I always felt Pipeline was for the guys, and they could keep it, but now I want another one, definitely."

Winning the 30-minute, six-woman shortboarding final with 13.16 total points was Kauai's Alana Blanchard. Finishing third through sixth were: Ashley Hunter (Punaluu, 8.17), Brenda Fried (Haleiwa, 6.00), Bartels (4.84) and Kim Hamrock (California, 4.34).

"I just wanted to do the best I could, and I didn't think I did all that great," said Blanchard, a home-schooled 15-year-old who, like the other division winners, picked up $500 with the victory.

The 44-year-old Hamrock of Huntington Beach was the oldest competitor in the field, but she regularly charged some of the biggest waves and, like Dzigas, had enough endurance to also compete in the longboarding division -- which she won.

Placing third through sixth in longboarding were: Alex Florence (Haleiwa), April Grover (Haleiwa), Marlene Gonzales (Haleiwa) and Caron Farnham (Australia).

Australia's Kira Llewellyn won the four-woman bodyboarding final, followed in order by: Daniela Ronquilio (Brazil), Mandy Zieren (Australia) and Caroline Casemiro (Brazil).