'Dream Tour' beckons for Kiwi surf sensation

BIGGER THINGS: After winning the Drug Aware Pro, Kiwi surfer Paige Hareb has her eyes on the 17-woman World Championship Tour which boasts more than $US1m in prizemoney and is tagged the Dream Tour because of its exotic locations around the globe.

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Paige Hareb has rocketed to third place on the World Qualifying Series standings, raising the tantalising prospect of the Kiwi surf sensation breaking onto the elite 'Dream Tour' by the end of this year.
Hareb wins big in Australia

The 17-year-old Taranaki ace arrives home on Tuesday for a two-week break after making history on Sunday by becoming the first New Zealand woman to win a round of the WQS.

The top six ranked surfers at the end of the 2008 WQS circuit graduate to the 17-woman World Championship Tour which boasts more than $US1m in prizemoney and is tagged the Dream Tour because of its exotic locations around the globe.

Hareb had originally given herself two to three years on the WQS circuit to break through but after beating four current WCT surfers on her way to winning the Drug Aware Pro in Western Australia, she admits she may need to rethink her timeline.

"Your best six results count towards your final WQS ranking and I now have a first and fifth, so while there’s still a long way to go, I’ve given myself a shot at it which is pretty exciting," said Hareb.

"It might mean re-looking at the rest of the WQS calendar and selecting the right events to get more strong results."

Competing in six-star WQS events in Brazil and South Africa later this year are now a strong possibility.

Hareb admits to still being 'overwhelmed' by her brilliant start to the year which also includes finishing runner-up in the World Pro Junior for professional women under 20. She was a sponsor’s wildcard for that tournament but stunned the field to finish second.

At the time, seven times world champion Layne Beachley predicted Hareb would propel New Zealand surfing to a new level and was good enough to make the Dream Tour.

That was endorsed by another Australian who has won the world title, Jodie Cooper, who said Hareb’s victory in challenging surf at the Drug Aware Pro was a "massive shot across the bows of the world’s top surfers".

Hareb defeated former world title runner-up Melanie Redmann-Carr as well as current top 10 ranked WCT surfers Rebecca Woods, Jessi Miley-Dyer and Amee Donohue on her way to her win at Margaret River.

"Those girls are all seasoned WCT competitors with great pedigree. They’re older and more experienced than Paige, but she took all of them down – and she’s only 17," said Cooper.

Hareb defeated current world No. 11 Roseanne Hodge of South Africa in the final.

Along with current WQS ratings leader Sally Fitzgibbons of Australia, Cooper said Hareb is at the vanguard of a 'new breed' of teenager who threaten to lift the Dream Tour to new levels once they qualify.

"Sally has been blowing people away all year but now along comes Paige doing the same thing….if I was those girls on the Dream Tour, I’d be getting pretty nervous about those two."

Hareb will spend the next two weeks at home preparing for an Australian Pro Junior event on the Gold Coast next month before travelling to France for the world junior amateur titles.

Following that event, she will refocus on gaining further WQS points and staying in the top six.

- © Fairfax NZ News