Friendship Gets Tested by Surfing

One is from Australia, the other from Peru.

One is a natural, her moves powerful and flowing; the other more a technician, her moves learned and polished.

Chelsea Georgeson was the new-age surfer many believed would end the dominance of Layne Beachley, another Australian, who won six consecutive world titles from 1998 to 2003.

But then came the 5-foot-3 Sofia Mulanovich, who won the world title last year and became famous beyond her dreams. She received a presidential award and was voted Peru’s most popular person. She became Roxy’s first champion since Lisa Andersen lifted women’s surfing out of obscurity while reeling off four titles in the mid-1990s.

Mulanovich, 22, heading into the Rip Curl Malibu Pro, scheduled today and Saturday at Surfrider Beach, is in first place with three events remaining. But right behind her is Georgeson, more determined than ever.

“Her winning the title pushes me even more,” says Georgeson, 21, who finished third last season behind Mulanovich and Hawaii’s Rochelle Ballard. “For me, it’s more exciting chasing Sofia than it was chasing Layne. There’s more motivation.”

There’s also a rising groundswell of ambivalence because Georgeson and Mulanovich, having established what figures to be a long-term rivalry, have been best friends for six years and have vowed not to let that rivalry come between them.

That may be a task. The women’s surfing tour has a field of only 18 and features stops at tiny, remote locales. Surfers share close quarters for long stretches. There is no privacy and feelings are impossible to mask.

Georgeson and Mulanovich are among the tour’s most popular athletes, but they’re different in many ways.

Georgeson, the natural, is more gregarious and stronger emotionally. She arrived on the WCT in 2002, finished eighth and has ascended the rankings every year since. “I totally want to win the title but I guess it’s one of those things where you really have to work for it,” she says.

Mulanovich, the technician, is unassuming and sensitive, but passionate. She failed to qualify for the 2002 WCT but used that as motivation and arrived in 2003 with a determination that was almost palpable. She finished seventh and was named rookie of the year.

“You can see her passion come through in her surfing,” says Jodie Smith, Roxy’s international team manager. “She surfs with a lot of drive and power and speed, and shows a lot of force.”

During last year’s title run, Mulanovich won three contests but wavered before the season’s second-to-last event, aware that although a high finish would clinch the title, it would also eliminate Ballard, a veteran in the sunset of her career, who was closer than ever to realizing her dream of becoming champion.

Mulanovich’s agent, Susan Izzo, sensed a sadness in her athlete and took her aside to “remind her of who she is and what she was doing and why.”

Mulanovich is keenly aware of that now. Her country has placed her on so high a pedestal, it’s a wonder she doesn’t suffer nosebleeds. Her success has led to a surfing revival in Peru. Moreover, it has given other young athletes in a nation without sports heroes -- Peru’s soccer teams are perpetually abysmal -- hope.

“She has maintained her kindness and simplicity,” says Hans Firbas, her press agent in Peru. “That is something people realize, and that is why all the people not only support her, but she is very loved.”

Georgeson maintains she is not jealous of her friend’s success, but Smith hints otherwise, saying Mulanovich’s triumph “woke up Chelsea a bit.”

Mulanovich knows how badly her friend wants the crown but says she will simply surf and try not to think about the consequences.

“It is weird, competing against your best friend, but we’ve always known that some day it’d be like this -- that we’d both be up there,” she says.

“Now we’re both going to try to win it. And we both want it, so we’ll see what happens.”

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Making a splash

The Rip Curl Malibu Pro is the seventh of nine surfing contests on the women’s World Championship Tour:

* When: Today and Saturday.

* Where: Surfider Beach. (Officials have listed Leo Carrillo State Park to the north as a possible alternative.)

* Tour points leader: Reigning world champion Sofia Mulanovich.

* Defending event champion: Megan Abubo.