Simone Robb carried up the beach by her South African team mates after winning the women’s title in the 2013 ISA World Longboard Surfing Championships at Huanchaco in Peru on Saturday. Photo: ISA / Rommel Gonzales
By Anne Taylor
30 September 2013
“No words can describe the stoke right now!”, champion longboarder Simone Robb posted on her Facebook page after winning gold at the International Surfing Association World Longboard Championships in Peru this weekend.
Team SA collected the silver medal in the team standings, with Thomas King and Ethan Pentz earning copper medals in the men’s and junior divisions respectively.
Robb, a multiple South African surfing champion from Kommetjie, went undefeated throughout the entire event and posted the highest scores in the women’s division, including the final where her long opening ride earned the heat’s highest score of 8.17 out of 10 and ultimately the gold medal, according to Surfing South Africa.
“I started up with a bang! I got the first wave of the heat, which was an 8, and I was really lucky to get that one,” Robb said in her post-heat interview reported on SSA’s website.
“It’s really cool to be the first female ISA World Longboard Champion. I’m really happy. My kids will wear my medal when I get back home. This event was amazing and the other women were so nice to compete against; they were all are really friendly.” – Simone Robb
The junior gold medal was won by Honolua Blomfeld, a 14 year-old girl from Hawaii, who dominated the division by winning every heat she contested.
The 36-year-old mother of two is best known for her “signature 360-degree manoeuvre”. Robb “went against girls half her age and some of the world’s best surfers and won each heat”, Robin De Kock, Surfing SA’s general manager, told the Cape Times. “Robb is an inspiration to young girls in this country. We are very proud of her.”
