THE Azores Airlines World Masters Championships, featuring Mollymook’s Pam Burridge, resumed on Wednesday in clean three-to-four foot surf and strong offshore winds at praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel.
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The day witnessed historic action with the first-ever women’s masters heats surfed on day two of the event’s waiting period.
Some of the pioneers of women’s professional surfing put the competition jersey back on for the first time in years and showed how much great athletes they are, putting on big performances in their qualifying round.
The most successful surfer in the 1980s with four World Titles Frieda Zamba (United States) dominated the women’s opening round of competition.
While most previous heats concentrated on the lefts, Zamba widened the field of possibilities with an incredible right on her backhand.
Her three-turn combination was flawless and judges rewarded her with a 9 point ride, the highest score of the women’s event so far.
Zamba went on to win her second qualifying heat in the early afternoon and effectively eliminated long time rival Pam Burridge (13.50 to 11.20) from competition – who had already lost to Pauline Menczer (13.00 to 9.47) already in the competition.
Layne Beachley (Australia), the seven-time World Champion from Manly had a similar great start in this event, taking out her two round one match-ups against Rochelle Ballard (Hawaii) and Jodie Cooper (Australia).
Beachley took a page out of Zamba’s book and ripped the rights to pieces on her forehand to advance into the Semifinals.
Rochelle Ballard (Hawaii) and Pauline Menczer (Australia) placed second in groups one and two respectively and will join Zamba and Beachley in the semi-finals.
