SYDNEY, New South Wales/Australia (Monday, March 11, 2013) - Alana Blanchard needs no introduction. From her Instagram fan base to her recent feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Ms. Blanchard has currently established herself as surfing’s most iconic model. While Alana’s talents outside of the water are no secret, she clearly proved she is one of the best female surfers in the world last week at the Roxy Pro Gold Coast with an incredible heat win over fellow Hawaiian Coco Ho on the way to a Quarterfinals finish. STAB Magazine recently caught up with Blanchard to get her thoughts on proving her abilities in the water, the power of social media and her modeling career. This… is their story…
Stab: Are you on tour to stay now, Ms Blanchard?
Alana: Ha! I got on, fell off, got on, fell off, now I’m back on. I didn’t expect to make it last year ’cause I was doing so bad in the beginning of the year. Then at the end of the year I had some good results and ended up making it. This year there’s been two ‘qs contests and I did bad and lost first round. So in this contest I lost first round again. It was a three-man heat and I got another chance but I was just over contests. I was just like, “At this point, I hate contests.” So I was like, fuck it, I’m just gonna surf and hopefully catch waves. And I guess it kinda worked out. I didn’t even care, I ran out of my room 10 minutes before my heat. I didn’t even go down to the contest beforehand. It was the weirdest thing, before that I just could not catch waves in my heat, ’cause I was so nervous or something. One other girl and I still couldn’t catch a wave. I don’t like contests that much.
One of your most interesting aspects is the modelling career sideline. And, that you can actually back it up with your surfing. Well, I finally got to back it up with my surfing! I feel like people didn’t know I could surf. A lot of people came up to me after my heat and were like, “Oh, I didn’t even know you could surf!” I was just like, “Thanks!”
The nature of surfing doesn’t particularly accommodate things like modelling careers on the side, but it’s gotta be nice to go out and get a 17.87 heat total. Yeah, well my dad called me before my heat and was just like, “Alana, just show people you can surf, for once. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose.” I was just like, “ok, I’ll just catch waves.” It’s cool, I’m really happy.
It feels like your fame’s tripled in the last year. I don’t know what it is. I try to not pay attention to it all, I guess. I just try to be myself and be happy. But I guess just within the last couple of years there’s been Instagram and so much social media, that’s it’s so easy if you have that little niche. It just builds and builds and it’s an easy way for people to see things. It’s so powerful. I don’t know why people are drawn to me but it’s cool, I guess.
