Kalistan

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Minor Princess wins top honors in Wilson River
"I will be competing in Luxon in August" says 17 year old surfer
Wilson Beach, Grand Duchy of Ananto
July 1, 5663


Minor Princess' prize winning run in Wilson sees waves more than 15 feet

It was an excellent day for surfing in Wilson as the Kali Pipeline Tournament kicked off on June 20. This three day competition pitted some of Kalistan's best young surfers against one another and is one of the three major tournaments in each summer's "Triple Crown Competition" (the others being Dana Invitational in May and Luxon Open in August). This year, Her Highness, the Minor Princess Nicolette-Carolina Ananto-Collins, who is still 16 years old, took first place in the women's category, though she lost the overall category to Sulari surfer Mike Dawson, who also won the Dana Invitational and is the favorite in Sulari for the Triple Crown. If Dawson wins the Luxon Open, he will be the first surfer in 24 years to win the Crown.

The first two days of the competition is called an "elimination round" where surfers have a half hour to gain points by surfing waves spectacularly. They get points for length of rides, and bonus points for time inside curls and carving wave faces. A run needs to be successful without wipeouts or bails to score points. In this way, 32 surfers are whittled to 16 for the final day's competition where they have an hour each to score as many points as possible during their time, and the top point getters in both male and female groups are declared winners of their group, while the top point earner over all is declared winner of the tournament. "They have gender segregated categories because, although men and women surf the same water," said Minor Princess Nicolette-Carolina Ananto-Collins, "it's not entirely fair to pit the men against the women. Women tend to surf more stylistically and can stay within tighter curls longer than most guys, because women are shorter and tend to be thinner. So we often just end up with more points, based on how the runs are scored. But the overall score is fair because of the top male scores and the top female scores, it usually averages out 50-50 female and male-Men tend to have longer runs and can do more carving on the face than women can."

"I am very proud of the Minor Princess," said Her Highness Princess Margaret Ananto-DeLaurentis, who has taken the role of defacto coach for Team Nicolette. "She has progressed so far in such a short time. And she has two more seasons ahead of her too. I think she has a real shot in Luxon." In fact, the win in the Women's category in Wilson qualifies the Minor Princess to compete in Luxon which is considered the championship contest of the Kalistani Surfing Circuit."

"The waves in Wilson are quite a bit taller and a bit more dangerous than at Sunset," said the Minor Princess. "But I have surfed Sunset in so many different conditions that Wilson was a challenge finally. We're further into the Swell here, and there's more of a challenge." Wilson's waves are indeed generated by the Luxon Swell, however, the large waves which run at 45 degrees from the shore as the Swell enters the deep undersea channel created by the swift Wilson River running into the ocean generate large waves in a very specific zone. "Like a Hard Ski Slope, there's like easier bunny beaches, like Sunset and Playa Suldanor near Sulari, where the floor is long and sandy, and then there's like black diamond beaches, like Luxon which have a reef and a submerged ridge of volcanic atoll." Wilson is rated intermediate to hard, but the Minor Princess said she has surfed Luxon many times and is excited to compete.

"We really hope for the best this August," said Princess Margaret. "I think she's ready, and I know my sister, Madame Victoria and my nephew will all be there to cheer the Princess on!"

@LaModa