Last year’s US Open of Surfing was crazy for a lot of reasons. The fact super young girls were writing slutty slogans on their bodies was one, and another was the total Beatles-esque off-the-richter fandom being sent Alana Blanchard’s way.

The latest episode of Alana Blanchard‘s Network A Surfer Girl series includes footage of the crazy crowds around Alana at Huntington Beach last summer of which the surf journalist Chris Cote had this to say:

It’s pretty much Alana-mania. Anytime she hits the water or does a signing it goes absolutely ballistic all around her, I would say she’s more popular than Kelly Slater at this point.

More popular than the most popular surfer ever!? That’s insane.

Alana Blanchard herself (who we like more and more every time we see these videos as they seem to show her more than a little baffled with the celebrity/messiah levels of worship social media-stoked fans seem to send her way IRL, though that could of course be us projecting here) had this to say:

Coming from Kauai I didn’t expect this turn out. The last few years have been pretty mellow, people come to me and want pictures but nothing like it was this year. This year I had to have security guards. It was really hectic. I couldn’t even get in [from the water]. It was definitely like a highlight, almost, I was like, “Wow this is so crazy that they want my picture this bad…”

Having security guards was pretty weird, I was like, “You don’t have to be here with me” and they were like, “Yeah I think we do actually, I means there’s this kid trying to tackle you…”

We did also have a little chuckle/eye roll at these fan vox pop answers to the question “Why do you love Alana?”:

 I love her hair, she has the prettiest hair…

I really like Alana cos she’s dating Jack Freestone and he’s really attractive

She’s an amazing surfer and she’s gorgeous

I was really excited to see her as she’s beautiful and a really good surfer

Here’s the vid, enjoy!