Kalistan

[Doc]

Luxon Surfer Heidi Richards appears poised to dominate
24-year old said to be most promising surfer of her generation
Luxon, Grand Duchy of Ananto
May 30, 5740


Heidi Richards on Crusher Bank in late April, and at Sunset Beach this May

The 24 year old Luxon native, Ms. Heidi Richards, has formally entered the 5740 as the odds on favorite to win the Luxon Swell Invitational. The young daredevil took first place over at at the Dana Open in Suldanor and has already won two smaller surfing completions in Sulari and Port Treacle. Having already secured her spot at the Luxon Swell Invitational, she now faces the first major competition on the Luxon Swell at the Kali Pipeline competition.

"Richards exploded onto the scene late last year," said surf writer Karen Marshall, for La Moda. "While she did not qualify for the Luxon Swell Invitational, she did take second among the women at Pipeline, and made a name doing incredibly daring surfing ahead of the Luxon Swell competition, during a major storm out at sea. This year she has dominated ever contest she has entered, winning by sometimes as many as 6 points, as she did as Dana earlier this year. She is a phenom and really has been untouchable so far this year. So we will see how she does at Kali Pipeline and by the end of June, we might be talking about another Triple Crown Winner."

To be clear, there has not been a winner of the Triple Crown of Surfing, which is first overall in the Dana Open, the Kali Pipeline Open Competition at Wilson River on Ananto, and the Luxon Swell at Luxon Beach on Ananto. The last person to win it was Princess Nicolette Ananto-Collins seventy years ago. Several have gotten close, but most serious contenders took first in their gender but not overall in each of the three competitions. The last close call was Guillermo Blanco of Yoshimi in 5734.

"Most of those aiming for the Triple Crown set up camp in Luxon and just stay there the whole summer, surfing the Swell over and over and over to try to learn how the reef interacts with the waves," said Marshall. "But Richards has been doing all kinds of other surfing as she goes out and dominates these competitions. She has been surfing the waves off Crusher Bank in the Anantonese, for example. For a world class contender, that sort of activity seems unnecessarily dangerous, but Heidi seems to have no fear. She charters a boat to take her out there, and just surfs these fifty, sixty foot killer waves. I really think she's an adrenaline junkie." Crusher Bank was the site where pro surfer Mike Lewis set the world towed record for the largest wave surfed in 5720. It's a site known for massive ocean waves often exceeding 60 feet tall.

Richards herself is rather humbled by all the attention she is suddenly getting. "No, I'm just a kid who grew up in Luxon, watching all these kids grow up around surfing, while my father is a fisherman and my mother is a music teacher. I got my first surf lesson, like actual surf lesson, in a contest at my school: Someone raffled it off and I won it. And my parents were really supportive. But I think the thing that held me back was both kind of being afraid of the water and also I wasn't a really strong swimmer." Richards said that all changed during National Service. "I got put onto a crew and we were building this... well, its the building that changes wave energy into electrical energy further up toward Kaliburg, and we worked next to the ocean all day, and so on weekends, of course my friends all wanted to go surfing, and I got into it, and they kind of showed me the things I really needed to do to stand up on the board and to catch waves and balance and all that. I mean, I just fell in love."

She said she surfed every time she went home on leave. "I knew the Luxon Swell is super hard, but I didn't have anything else do surf, being from Luxon itself, so when I would go home I would immediately go to the beach, and then would surf up by Sunset Beach, and those waves were like far more chill..." Upon her discharge from the NSP, she picked up surfing full time, tending bar at night to pay her bills and surfing by day. "The Swell is not an every day thing," she said. "For much of the year, the ocean is going the wrong way, and the water is pretty flat. But come March through about mid September, the southern currents push up this way. When the Swell is really pushing, especially if there is a storm out to sea, we can get some really gnarly waves here, and they are all pointed directly at Luxon Beach. That's why this surfing is some of the hardest, and really most dangerous surfing in the world."

But as thrilling as the Swell is in Luxon, Richards said surfing out at Crusher Bank is definitely more challenging. "Since that bank is whatever is left of an ancient volcanic island, its kind of like a sand bar way out there, and as the ocean rolls over the top of it... My god, those waves out there, when the Swell hits it just right, are like riding down the face of a 7 story building. And if you wipe out, there is nothing between you and Ananto like 100 miles away... so... its very dangerous to surf the bank, you gotta bring a rescue crew out there, and pray like hell that you don't get smoked." Richards says that surging on the Bank is how she intends to prepare for the Luxon Swell Invitational later this summer. "Yeah, even if I don't win the Pipeline, I think I want to prepare on the Bank because its a mental thing. If I am used to surfing those waves, Luxon will be a cake walk."

We'll keep a close eye on Richards' progress through the season. Currently, futures contracts on her winning the Triple Crown are going for 51 cents in Sulari, meaning that bettors believe she has a slightly better than even chance of taking home the very coveted, and very rare Triple Crown Trophy this year. That will change if she wins the Kali Pipeline next month as she is expected to do.

@LaModa