Our former cover girl and 4 times ASP World Champ Steph Gilmore seems to be back to her true form after a little rough patch last year, with a win over reigning queen Carissa Moore at the TSB Bank New Zealand Surf Festival in Taranaki, New Zealand last weekend.

After rather disappointing results in 2010 and 2011, the Australian is fully back on track and leading the ASP Women’s World Ranking once again! So the race for this year’s title is on and bound to be a super exciting one, just like the final in NZ that was decided by the margins of a 0.70.

“This is by far the best start to a season I’ve had in my career,” Steph said after the contest. “To have three Finals straight off the bat, I’m kind of tripping out. It’s really cool. That was a really close Final, I’m sure it could have gone either way. I watched Carissa’s wave from behind and she did that huge first turn and then raced to the next section, but if she did another turn straight away, I’m sure she would have gotten the score. I’m glad it went my way though.”

But also Paige Hareb, who was defeated by Steph in a tight semifinal, and Lakey Peterson, who had been a standout performer all week, will be some to watch in the further course of this championships.

FINALS:
1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.76
2: Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.06

SEMIFINALS:
SF 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.44 def. Paige Hareb (NZL) 14.07
SF 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) 12.93 def. Lakey Peterson (USA) 11.92

QUARTERFINALS:
QF 1: Paige Hareb (NZL) 14.33 def. Laura Enever (AUS) 12.16
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.33 def. Tyler Wright (AUS) 11.60
QF 3: Lakey Peterson (USA) 16.50 def. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 14.00
QF 4: Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.66 def. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 12.90