Sofia Mulanovich : photo ASPWorldtour/Tostee

ASP WCT Womens Event
Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park, North Shore, Oahu
12 - 23 November 2005

ROXY PRO HAWAII CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF WOMEN'S COMPETITIVE SURFING

Roxy Team riders Sofia Mulanovich, Chelsea Georgeson and Megan Abubo all World Title Contenders

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 1 November, 2005 : - - (Huntington Beach, CA) Tuesday, November 1, 2005 --- The Roxy division of Quiksilver, Inc., the leading women’s outdoor sports brand, presents the 11th annual Roxy Pro Hawaii at Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park, on Oahu's North Shore, November 12-23. In addition to being a World Championship Tour event, the Roxy Pro Hawaii will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of women's competitive surfing. The contest will take place over three days within the 12-day holding period.
 
The Roxy Pro Hawaii is the longest running women's professional shortboard competition in Hawaii and will once again play a major part in deciding the world champion. Coming into the event, three Roxy Team Riders are in contention for the crown, headed by reigning world champion Sofia Mulanovich (Peru), who last year clinched the world title at Haleiwa. Chelsea Georgeson (Australia) is currently rated second in the world, and Megan Abubo (Hawaii) is third.

Chelsea Georgeson : photo ASPWorldtour/Tostee

 
"Women and surfing have long gone hand-in-hand in Hawaii, and for the past decade Roxy has enjoyed honoring this relationship with the Roxy Pro Hawaii," said Randy Hild, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, Roxy.

"Over the years we have celebrated the crowning of world champions like Lisa Andersen and Sofia Mulanovich in Hawaii, and this year we are excited to go back even further and pay tribute to all the women who laid the foundations for women's surfing as we know it today. We see this 50th anniversary as one of the sport's most important landmarks and feel privileged to be a part of it."
 
It was in 1955, at Makaha Beach on the West Side of Oahu, that the very first women's international surfing competition was held as part of the Makaha International. Fifty years later, women's surfing and the women's surf industry have advanced in leaps and bounds to boast a world tour exclusively for women that offers over $800,000 in prize money, and a lucrative industry in its own right.
 
The 2005 Roxy Pro Hawaii competition will feature the top 17 ranked women on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) world tour, as well as one wildcard entrant who will be determined in a surf-off between hot up-and-coming Hawaii surfers Carissa Moore, Bethany Hamilton, Chastity Baltazar, and last week's Roxy Trials winner Tory Titcomb.

Megan Abubo : photo ASPWorldtour/Tostee

 
Staged on Oahu's North Shore, the most famous 7-mile stretch of surf on Earth, the Roxy Pro is held at historic Haleiwa town's Ali'i Beach Park. Inaugurated in 1995, the first six years of the Roxy Pro took place at Sunset Beach. The Roxy Pro's shift to the North Shore's gateway, Haleiwa, in 2001, firmly anchored the event to Hawaii's surfing history. It was at Haleiwa Ali'i (Hawaiian for 'royalty') Beach Park that the ali'i of female surfers rode the waves over 100 years ago. Today, the world's most accomplished female surfers ride in the footsteps of their predecessors.
 
The Roxy Pro Hawaii is the fourth in a series of four Roxy Pro events that collectively make up close to half of the ASP World Championship Tour schedule. The Roxy Pro Australia (March) was won by Australian schoolgirl Stephanie Gilmour, while the Roxy Pro Fiji (April), and Roxy Pro England (May) played a major hand in Sofia Mulanovich's world title defense campaign, offering up a pair of wins that kept her in the number one spot.

 
For more information about the Roxy Pro Hawaii, please visit http://www.roxy.com/roxypro

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