Women’s Corona Open J-Bay was delayed many days due to poor conditions but after some days of despair, perfect lines of waves suddenly came in and predicted conditions were going to be the best in the whole tournament. So who won? Stephanie Gilmore, from Australia, ended up first, Lakey Peterson was runner-up and they are the ones leading the WSL ranking with a Tatianna Weston-Webb fighting to climb up from third position.

It wasn’t as easy as it seems though. In Quarterfinals, both Gilmore and Macaulay scored a 15.00 heat but Gilmore went through the next round because she scored a better single wave with an 8.00.

This is how the ranking looks right now:

“I think I was just stressing too much about everything,” Gilmore said after being asked about her slow beginning of tournament. “Everyone was telling me that this is my wave, this is my place. And then I saw Lakey smash it and get huge scores … so I started thinking that maybe this isn’t my wave.”

On her side, Weston-Webb who is on pole position said: “I’m proud of the way I surfed today. There’s definitely things that I could’ve done to better my chances against Steph. You can’t take any chances with her. But I’m learning and I’ve had an awesome crew here with me. I was really connecting with the wave in my earlier heats. Stress is the enemy.”

Want to be the next Stephanie Gilmore? Come and learn to surf in Tenerife.