LOS ANGELES, California/USA (Wednesday, October 10, 2012) – Sage Erickson (USA), 21, put together an incredible late-season run to rejuvenate her rookie season on the Women’s ASP WCT. After starting her year off with an injury prior to Snapper Rocks, Erickson faced the typical struggles that come along with finding your feet while battling the world’s best surfers, but the Ventura native found her stride to end out the year. Erickson was in need of some major results to rejoin the ASP Top 17 for a second season and she took the challenge head-on, with a momentum shift that began with a 5th place finish at the Nike US Open of Surfing, where she topped reigning ASP Women’s World Champ Steph Gilmore (AUS), 24. The natural-footer then went on to take back-to-back ASP 6-Star victories and clinch the No. 1 position on the ASP Women’s World Ranking. ESPN.com caught up with Sage after capping off her European success. This… is their story…
The girl next door has an exceedingly good nature, easy charm and a winning smile. If she also has an edgy sense of style, a wicked frontside snap and happens to reside in Ventura, Calif., then Sage Erickson might just be your neighbor. The 21-year-old finished 13th on the World Tour and was the leading lady on the Women’s QS, but her rookie year was far from a cinch.
After two years on the star series, Erickson was comfortable with both the locations and the opposition, which is a dangerous way to be when you’re surrounded by some of the fiercest competitors in the world. She admits that she didn’t know how to prepare for her inaugural elite year and post the kinds of results for which she’d hoped in 2012: She finished 13th at five of seven WCT events.
Somewhere around Rio, that string of “unlucky 13s” became frustrating and Erickson was forced to consider that she might not be amongst the Top 17 next year.
“I was so hungry,” she says. “I had been putting so much time in at the gym, reading sports-psychology books, and my equipment felt really good. I felt like a result was around the corner. And it didn’t happen in Brazil.”
