Kalistan

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Richards fails in bid for Second Triple Crown
Queen of Surf still finishes season impressively
Luxon Beach, Grand Duchy of Ananto
July 25, 5741


Heidi Richards stands with Luxon Swell Overall winner, Collin Apton

The reigning Queen of Surf, Heidi Richards has failed to repeat the Triple Crown designation by finishing a close second in the women's category and third overall in the contest. She had previously won the Dana Open and the Kali Pipeline earlier in the summer and was a wide favorite to win this competition. But a combination of nerves driven by a small injury and a series of lack luster waves during her first round at Luxon combined to sabotage her ambitions. The winner of the competition, Dana's Collin Apton meanwhile turned in an exceptional performance, and accepted the victory in Kalistan's most prestigious and challenging surfing competition very graciously.

"Heidi pushed us all to be better this year," said Apton. "I took chances this year on waves I would have never even tried before. I think she had really moved the sport ahead and I am really honored to not only have the chance to surf against her, but also to be able to call her a friend and a colleague." Similar sentiments were also expressed by the Women's category champion and contest runner-up Megan Weiss, who said she spent the summer studying Richards methods on the wave and trying to emulate them. But nobody can do what she does on the surfboard. Nobody. I happened to get better waves, and that's all. If she had my waves, she would have repeated the Triple Crown this year."

Richards was also gracious in defeat. "I know these guys. The professional surfing community is pretty small, after all. We have the opportunity to meet each other, surf with each other, and in a lot of cases live with each other while at competitions... I crashed on Collin's couch in Dana. I mean, any of these guys and girls could have won. But really, the ones who did win, simply gave a better show and chalked up a better score than the rest of us. They went out there and they earned their wins. And nobody can take that away from them."

Richards attributed her defeat to her wave set on her first round. "Well, this morning, the sea was just not rolling in for me. I drew third round, and had maybe two or three good waves, and the other ones were either going too slow or just had the wrong angle on them. And there was one good one I missed because I couldn't make it to where it was starting to build... It was just not a very good morning for me and so I had catch up to play in the afternoon, but Megan had two good rounds, and I couldn't catch her." In fact, Heidi Richards earned a 7.2 in her first round, her lowest score for the season, but her second round was 9.6 including a perfect 10. Her score of 16.8 was just edged out by Weiss' 17.3 and Apton's 17.4.

Richards also suffered an injury in practice for this event. She wiped out a week ago over the reef and received a serious gash on her ankle. Over the week, she spent time healing which could have been spent practicing, and stated before the competition that her heel was a bit stiff going into the competition. It's not certain that the injury played a major role in her third place finish at Luxon, but it was possible that it contributed to Heidi Richards' more conservative first round performance.

Despite her third place finish at Luxon this year, Richards ends her season with a very impressive record: Three major competition overall wins, and five additional wins in local competitions along the circuit and three victories in women's categories. In fact, this Luxon competition was the first competition where she has not place either first or second place in two seasons. But in case anyone is concerned that she is losing her edge, Richards said, "No I don't think so. I'm coming back next year and we're going to do it all over again. Megan and Collin are just awesome competitors, and did so well today, and I am so proud for them. It will be fun to keep competing against them next year."

Apton summed what he said is "every surfer's opinion. Everyone has a bad day. Today was only a bad morning for Heidi. And then she still came back and almost took it anyway. We are all lucky to be surfing with such a legend. She makes us want to be better, to push ourselves to be better. She is so kind, she's a ray of light, and she's such a good person to serve as an ambassador for our sport... our lifestyle really. She's great, and yeah, to even be up here with her is definitely just wild. We'll all be back next year. And speaking for myself, I can't wait."

@LaModa