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Princess Nicolette Claims the Triple Crown
Final Wave at Luxon "Victory Lap" for new Queen of Surf
Luxon, Grand Duchy of Ananto
August 25, 5671


Princess Nicolette takes "Victory Lap" on a 19.5-foot face at Luxon

Ahead of a large early season storm that later rolled into Southern Ananto, Her Highness, Princess Nicolette Ananto-Collins took the Luxon Swell Invitational title and has earned the coveted Triple Crown of Surfing, completing a life long goal, at just before the age of 25. The victory at Luxon was not an easy win, as massive waves and skilled performances kept the contest close until well into the Princess' final round, after which she distanced herself from the pack and showed her true athletic prowess on the water.

"The Princess was blessed with a strong score coming into the finals and a particularly set of long, strong straight waves that allowed her to milk as many points out of her four big runs in the last round as she possibly could," said guest judge, and incidentally the last winner of the Triple Crown, Mike Dawson, who flew in from his adopted home in Xsampa to judge the competition. "She surfed faces that many pros would avoid, because they would be considered too gnarly and too dangerous, or they broke right on the shallow reef, which makes them especially dangerous for surfers, because one mistake could be more or less deadly. But she showed she wanted it more than every other surfer in this competition, and she went out and took it. I'm super proud of her."

The Princess wracked up enough points by her third run in the finals to overtake the two men at the top of the leaderboard, last year's men's champion Wren Tellari, who was second over all going into the finals, and her main competition, Zeke Phillips, who was in the lead up until then. "When I saw her pass Wren after that first run, I thought, 'well, maybe I still have a chance...' but by the end of her second run, which was super long, was so well done, with so many moves and all this carving, and she just stayed on the board, and almost went out of bounds she was on there so long, I knew I was done."

Her last two rides were some of the longest rides in the sport's coemption, with the swells starting farther out than normal and growing to 15, 16 and sometimes 20 feet before breaking. "Yeah, she took everything she could and rode them to death," said Phillips. "That really flat, superfast tube on her third run, I thought for sure she was gonna wipe out on that, but here she comes, with her short ass, flying out of the tube at like a thousand miles an hour just as it collapses. We were watching a dream. No dude could ever flatten out like that."

Having won the competition on the third run, the Princess could have called it a day, but she still had time on the clock for a final wave, and was presented a real doozy with just three minutes left in the competition. "That wave must have been twenty feet high," said Dawson. "And it just wouldn't break, so she saw it coming, and went all the way up to the top of it, dropped down into it, and carved the f--- out of it. It seriously looked like she was dancing. If there are ocean gods, they smiled on her today. and then-- it started to roll and she just looked like she was in her element. Such a massive run, there's no doubt, she's it: Queen of Surf, for real."

Dawson added that photos taken of the Princess during her final runs at Luxon will likely end up on countless boys' and girls' walls as life size wall posters this fall. "Can you blame them? Women want to be her, and men just want her," declared Dawson, who notes also that the Princess seems to be leading a trend in girls' hairstyles. "This year at Luxon, like half the female fans had that same pixie haircut with sweep bangs like she has. She's got quite the fan base--way more than I had when I won."

Princess Nicolette, for her part, seemed to not have come to full realization of what she had accomplished. Interviewed after the competition, she simply said, "I'm pretty tired. It will be nice to have some time to recover." And left it at that. In the final ceremonies, when she received her trophy and a bouquet of poppies from the judging staff, she smiled and waved, but only took one interview where she said she would like to start mentoring young surfers to kind of encourage more people to get into the sport. "My contract with Dah Surf Co. is up for renewal soon, and I might go a different way. Next year is the Coronation, and I have more of a role. I'm just about to turn 25, maybe I'd like a family, that would be nice. A bunch of stuff I want to do, so I might decide to maybe take a break on competition for a while, because I've done what I came to do."

Asked if she will still surf, the Princess said, "Of Course. Always." To back it up, Princess Nicolette says she has purchased a home near the harbor in Luxon. "On these waves, it's really where I am happiest."

Congratulations to Her Highness, Princess Nicolette Ananto-Collins, and long live "Her Majesty, the Queen of Surf."

@TheRepublic