Ballard Eases Frustration With Victory

Rochelle Ballard was more relieved than excited about winning her heat in the Gotcha Pro surfing event Saturday at Huntington Beach to advance to today’s final.

“About time,” she said emphatically.

It has been a frustrating year for Ballard. She hasn’t won an event and has seen her world ranking slip from fourth at the end of 1998 to 10th coming into the Gotcha Pro. At 28 years old, it’s also around the time that most surfers start to lose ground to younger competition. If age has been a reason for Ballard’s troubles this year, she isn’t letting on.

“I feel like a grommet again,” said Ballard, from Hawaii. “I’ve been having so much fun with my surfing; I feel so young.

“It’s ironic because I feel like I’ve been having the best year of my life, surfing better than I’ve ever surfed. I just wasn’t quite doing it in contests.”

Before qualifying for the final in the Gotcha Pro, Ballard’s best finish in her six events was third at an event in April in Australia. That was a long way from Ballard’s expectations. She said she hoped to improve upon her fourth-place finish last year to win a world championship. After six events, Ballard, with 2,150 points, was 2,210 points behind No. 1 Layne Beachley.

Her frustrations finally boiled over in the week before the Gotcha Pro, and it ended up being vital to her success this week.

“I came into this contest saying, I’m over it, I don’t even care,” she said. “I just want to go out there and catch waves and surf the way I can surf. I don’t care if I win or lose; I don’t care about preparation; I’m just going to focus on surfing.”

Ballard defeated Maria Tita Tavares, a Brazilian who is ranked seventh in the world, in the semifinals to advance. Ballard caught a couple of waves early while Tavares struggled with the modest waves. After building a lead, Ballard used her experience, positioning herself in the water to make it tough for Tavares to catch good waves and cut the lead. Ballard finished with a score of 19.00, easily outdistancing Tavares, who had 16.80.

In the final, Ballard will face Australian Trudy Todd, who beat fellow Australian Pauline Menczer in the other semifinal. Menczer was crippled by an interference call midway through the heat, which Menczer believed should have been called a double interference since both surfers were going for the same wave and neither had priority. The interference penalty is one wave in the scoring, leaving her with only her two best to work with instead of the typical three.

Todd is ranked sixth in the world, but realizes that Ballard, the American, may have an advantage.

“I think Rochelle is going to be very hard to beat because she’s got everyone behind her here,” she said.