Karla Costa Taylor has conquered the bodyboarding contest of the Science Hawaii Pipeline Women's Pro, in Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii. The competition was held in splendid 6-8 foot waves. Claudia Ferrari, Aoi Koike and Carolina Casemiro took the remaining three places in the podium.
The event finished up in style, in solid Pipeline surf. The two week waiting period saw an epic Pipeline swell in the first few days and the officials grabbed the opportunity.
Karla Costa Taylor was a standout with solid wave selection and a ten point ride, in the semi final, on a cranking back door wave. Claudia Ferrari was right on her heels with on peak drop ins and technical rolls. Both ladies are former World Champions and have won at Pipe before.
Japan's Aoi Koike took the third slot. Koike is also a past winner and nicely represented Japan in these times of hardship. The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan was weighing heavily on everybody's minds but Koike was able to concentrate and make the final. In fourth was new mom, Carolina Casemiro, who just fell short in the final. Casemiro's smile lit up the day, baby in tow.
In the shortboarding contest, Emilia Perry surfed all three divisions, making two semis. Later, she would lose a fin in the longboarding final. Tatiana Weston-Webb took the top honors, followed by Brianna Cope, Anastasia Ashley and Paige Alms.
In the longboarding final, there was not too many surf out there and the first five minutes were stressful. Candice Appleby caught a couple rails but surfed some perfect waves and grabbed first place. Megan Godinez was second, Lindsay McGill second and Emilia Perry took third.