Canadian teenager Erin Brooks made history at Teahupo'o on Wednesday, becoming the youngest surfer ever to win the Outerknown Tahiti Pro. At just 19, the reigning Rookie of the Year claimed her first win as a full-time Tour member, beating Israel's Anat Lelior in a dramatic final.
Deep in a hole, deep in the barrel
The final tested Brooks from the start. Lelior opened with a pair of eight-point rides that left the Canadian trailing badly. With time slipping away, Brooks needed something special under grey Tahitian skies.
She found it at the 16-minute mark with an eight-point ride of her own. Then, in the dying minutes, she airdropped into a bomb, pulled deep into a hollow tube and emerged behind a curtain of spit. The wave scored a heat-best 8.93, giving her a 17.20 to 16.33 victory.
Five world titles, two champions, one teenager
The run to the final was brutal. Brooks first took down five-time world champion Carissa Moore in Round 2. She then dispatched reigning world champion Molly Picklum in the quarter-finals before beating Australian veteran Isabella Nichols in the semis, 15.10 to 11.17.
Clean, four-to-six-foot hollow barrels greeted competitors on Finals Day, and Brooks rose to every challenge. "I'm so happy right now. It's been a tough year so far, I haven't made many heats, so this feels really good," she told reporters afterwards, the emotion clear in the channel.
Her win shot Brooks seven places up the rankings to 11th, with six events remaining. Texas-born and competing for Canada, she turned a difficult season into a breakthrough moment at one of the Tour's most intimidating waves.
