A GIRLS TOUCH

Enough with all the dudes on the boat. Have you seen the girls lately? Steph Gilmore. Alana Blanchard. Bethany Hamilton. Tyler Wright. They are the vanguard of women professional surfing these days, and it about time they joined the Tip 2 Tip mission and heated things up this week.

Getting them all together for a couple of weeks, however, is not easy. Steph is not just a world champion anymore, she is an icon. Mainstream mags just as much as surf mags want photo shoots, interviews, quotes… and on and on with the weird requests. Alana, you have certainly noticed, commands her fair share of mega-attention these days. Bethany has been working with Hollywood on a big-budget film about her life story, called “Soul Surfer. And Tyler is busy etching her mark in women professional surfing history since becoming the youngest winner of an ASP World Tour event the Beachley Classic in 2008.

Clearly, these girls are in-demand. But when we told them it was their turn to go searching on the Quest 1, suddenly schedules cleared and emails went unanswered. “I’m in Indo for the rest of the month,” the out-of-office replies read, “and you won’t hear from me until I get back.” Perfect.

Not even a day into the trip, the girls seemed to forget just how big-time they are, and the switches turned off. Suddenly they were just friends on a surf trip. Themselves. And just as they discovered yet another fresh side of Indo on their leg of the Tip 2 Tip mission, so too did we meet a new Steph, Alana, Bethany, and Tyler… and it got pretty entertaining.

Watch their adventure on www.ripcurl.com

You can follow the “Tip 2 Tip” Search project online at www.ripcurl.com <http://www.ripcurl.com/tip2tip/>

Tags: Alana Blanchard, Bethany Hamilton, Rip Curl, Soul Surfer, stephanie gilmore, Tip 2 Tip, Tyler Wright