Seventeen year-old emerging star Samantha Sibley (San Clemente, CA) overcame a stacked field of top-ranked competitors to top the Nissan Super Girl Surf Pro podium, earning her first World Qualifying Series (QS) title and becoming the youngest champion to wear the coveted contest cape. Previous Super Girl Pro champ, Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) finished second, with last year’s runner-up Caroline Marks (USA), and Bronte Macaulay (AUS) earning equal third.
With her win today, Sibley skyrockets from No. 52 to No. 6 on the QS rankings and now has a strong shot to land a spot on the Championship Tour (CT) next season.
“This is the best day of my life! I can’t believe I just won the Super Girl Pro,” exclaimed an overwhelmed Sibley. “I’ve been coming to this event ever since I was little, standing on this beach, taking pictures with all my heroes, and now to be the Super Girl . . . I’m at a loss for words.”
Sibley’s versatile approach helped her garner some of the day’s highest scores — including the event’s highest heat total of a 15.76 (out of a possible 20) in Round 5 and a single wave score of 8.00 (out of a possible 10) in the Final.
The friendships amongst the competitors in this event is well-known and even more evident after the Semi-finals, when the first person to congratulate Sibley was Weston-Webb.
Weston-Webb, a CT veteran, has attended the Super Girl Pro contest every year and has rarely found herself not competing on finals day. The 23-year-old fought her way through the likes of Teresa Bonvalot (PRT), Leilani McGonagle (CRI), and Bronte Macaualy (AUS) with impressive numbers of her own, including a 15.10 heat total in the Semifinals.
—
Photo Credit: Ivan Kurmyshov / Shutterstock.com
