French surfer Johanne Defay has been in Australia for the past nine weeks to take part in four consecutive rounds of the world championship held in the country. As the fifth event begins this Sunday at Rottnest Island, here's how the Private Sport Shop ambassador has spent these two months on the other side of the world.
It's not easy to organize a world championship in these times of pandemic. However, the WSL (organizer of the World Surfing Championship) has managed to keep to its schedule at the beginning of the season. After the first competition held last December in Hawaii, the second round (Shiseido Sunset Open), also scheduled in the archipelago, was finally cancelled at the beginning of the year before the third (Santa Cruz Pro) was postponed. As a result, the best surfers of the World Tour had to wait until the beginning of April to get back on a board to compete in Australia, where all the surfers, including Johanne Defay from Reunion, went.
On the agenda was the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup, the second leg of the world championship, which preceded three other events held in the country. But in order to get the athletes, their staff and their families into the country, the WSL had to put the foreigners through a strict quarantine in Sydney. Frenchmen Jeremy Flores, Michel Bourez and Johanne Defay had to comply as soon as they got off the plane on 7 March. For the current world number seven, the days were punctuated by muscle exercises, cooking and social networking with her family and friends from the TC, like this Granola/Fitness session with Costa Rican Brisa Hennessy, who was also confined to a hotel in Sydney.
At the end of March, the 27 year old Frenchwoman was finally able to go outside and get back on her board to train. Two weeks of freesurfing before the start of the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup. The opportunity for the surfer from Reunion to ride waves on different spots in Newcastle.
In competition, Johanne fell in the quarter-finals to her friend Carissa Moore. The Hawaiian beat her thanks to a fabulous 360 air-reverse, which was replayed at the end of the series and against which the Frenchwoman could not do anything in the last remaining minutes. But Johanne is improving compared to the previous round in Hawaii where she finished the event in ninth place.
In the following competition, Johanne finished in the same position, reaching the quarter-finals after notably dominating local and two-time 2016 and 2017 World Champion Tyler Wright in the round of 16. On a final wave found with less than two minutes left in the heat, the Frenchwoman strung together four great moves to score an 8 out of 10 (see video below), enough to validate her ticket to the quarters. "It's crazy how much pressure I felt in that heat," she said as she left the water. "There were a lot of times when Tyler took the first wave and the second wave was better. In the end, I was able to perform well. "
Two without three for Johanne who would have liked to go further than these quarter finals which have been resisting her for three rounds now. On the Margaret River Pro, she fell to the Australian Bronte Macaulay. A surfer that the Frenchwoman had already dominated in the first round, but against whom she had to lose in the quarter-finals despite an identical score between the two women (11.83). In this rare case of a perfect tie, it is the best rated wave that decides between the two competitors. With a 6.88 out of 10, Bronte Macaulay was better than Johanne's 6.50. These three consecutive quarter-finals place the Frenchwoman in seventh place in the world in a ranking dominated after four rounds by Carissa Moore. The next event will take place on Sunday 16 May, still in Australia, on Rottnest Island.