Ahh, to be young, Australian, and a two-time women's world champ touring through the United States. Welcome to the current world of Steph Gilmore. Recently, the New South Wales native and current women's WCT leader took advantage of some off time during the Women's WCT to see the States. From devouring thin-crust pizza and cruising Brooklyn and the streets of New York, to touring Warner Bros. and chilling with movie stars on the West Coast, young Gilmore is drenching herself in all things Americana this summer. (To date, she has yet to spend a weekend at a NASCAR event drinking Bud Light and all reports indicated that she has refrained from partaking in the all-American pastime of chowing down on a round deep-fried Twinkies, but with any luck, she'll come around.)

Furthermore, what trip across the States is complete without getting a Teen Choice Award? Apparently the prowess of the 22-year-old Aussie has transcended our once-niche sport and Steph recently found herself rubbing elbows with America's freshest teeny boppers...sort of. Zac Efron and Steph G. a couple? Only if we're lucky. Trouble with the whole Teen Choice Awards Show is the getting a spot in the guest list is akin to winning the Lotto. Believe it or not, Steph didn't get an invite to the event despite winning an award for "Female Action Sports Athlete of the Year" and she was forced to watch the awards from her OC home stay. Has the Teen Choice Awards have no shame? Despite being 86ed from the guest list, Steph remained her usual upbeat self.

"The best part about the awards show was watching Britney Spears march in, snatch her board/trophy off Miley Cyrus, say 'Thanks y'all' and sprint off stage before anyone could even clap! Haha, she's my hero!" said Steph of the awards show. "Anyways, I'm pretty stoked to win a Teen Choice Award. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! Maybe next year my Wonka luck will buy me a chocolate bar containing the golden ticket to the show?"

For the rest of the month, expect to see Steph updating her American blog and repping the Stars and Stripes before the women's tour kickstarts again in Sydney as the all-fem congregation heads off to the Beachley Classic beginning September 30.

For more on Steph and her march across the US, check out the link.

http://www.ripcurl.com/stephintheus

Editors Note: Dear & Yonder directors Tiffany Campbell and Andrea Lessler were awarded the Breakthrough Filmmaker of the Year Award at this year's Surfer Poll gala last week. We hope that very worthy honor will convince you to go check this film out. When you do I think you'll fall pretty hard for Lizzy Clark, one of today's most hardcore adventurist. In fact, you can read a lot more about Clark in the current issue of Surfer Magazine. We'll take this moment to congratulate Campbell and Lessler on a job well done. The text below is my reaction to the film after a screening in July. -- PG

When I was a grom, I had wonderful dreams about Paradise Island, which is not be confused with Fantasy Island, y'know, where Ricardo Montalban (RIP) and that little Tatoo guy (RIP) who used to always be searching for planes circling overhead. Anyway, Paradise Island is where Wonder Woman comes from. And well, as far as I was concerned back then, she was the hottest chick alive. Paradise Island is inhabited and ruled entirely by women. Incredible Amazon warrior women who were smart, beautiful, athletic, and yeah, really frickin' sexy. It was a lot for a 14-year old kid to handle. Go ahead, see for yourself.


Thing is, I'm pretty sure Paradise Island actually exist out there somewhere, and not just in the form of some Vegas strip club. When I saw a preview of the new chick flick, Dear and Yonder, which stars some of the hottest female surfers in the world, including Sofia Mulanovich, Stephanie Gilmore, Coco Ho, Kassia Meadore, Malia Manuel and the queen of wanderlust, Lizzy Clark, my faith in that belief was restored.

That this movie even exists is a bit of a dream come true for that kid in me. Packs of talented girls having fun together in bikinis while demonstrating their talent in perfect surf? Really, what's not to love? Yes, the whole thing is eye-candy, it's beautifully shot by Thomas and Tiffany Campbell, Sonny Miller, Dave Homcy and Scott Soens, and then put together nicely by Tiffany and Andria Lessler, utilizing some compelling hooks, from odes to the pioneers of women's surfing to modern day world champs, groovy artists, and exotic adventurist like Elizabeth "Lizzy" Clark, who has been sailing across the Pacific for the past couple of years in her 40' boat searching for waves. She will flat-out steal your heart in this film, and you'll wish you could jump on board with her.



Granted, it's a chick flick, but any theater showing this film stands a good chance of becoming its own little Paradise Island. And these aren't your average girls. These are Wonder Women. Do what you have to to get there.

Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith, Julian Wilson, Steph Gilmore, Coco Ho and Alana Blanchard. What do these six names have in common? They're all young, progressive, and shaking things up on the ASP World Tour. That's Dane above taking to the sky. Photo: ASP

Jordy and Dane were all the hype last year, and under the magnifying glass of the surfing world as they competed in their rookie seasons. Now, the two are starting their sophomore year, and both are coming off injuries. Jordy tweaked his knee at Sunset this past winter, and Dane hurt his ankle doing a big air.

How has this affected their surfing in the first event of the year? Not at all it seems, both have been cruising through their heats. Dane has the events only 10 and words can't explain how ridiculously he linked some super critical maneuvers, he also put up a 9.40. Jordy too has been very impressive, and I witnessed the "Changing of the Guard" yesterday when he seemingly effortlessly took out Taylor Knox.


Jordy gets his slide on in his Round 3 heat against Taylor Know. Photo: ASP

Speaking of the "Changing of the Guard," then there's Julian Wilson. The 20-year-old wildcard took out The Niner himself, as in 9x World Champ, Kelly Slater, in their Round 3 heat this past weekend. If you want to prove you're the next big thing, Slater's the man to beat.

What about the ladies? The Women's ASP World Tour has been talked about more this year than any other year I can remember. Two new faces: Coco Ho, 17, and Alana Blanchard, who just turned 19, are both from Hawaii and seem to have a mini-women's tour version of the Jordy/Dane thing of last year.


Stephanie Gilmore with a steazy' slice at D'bah. Photo: ASP

And let's not forget about, Steph Gilmore, she's still pretty young at 21 and took home her second ASP World Title last year. Now, to kick off the 2009 season she won the Roxy Pro Gold Coast on Sunday.

So there it is. This crew is the real deal and they're making me feel old and not want to surf anymore at 25. They're that good, lookout all you old-timers on those tours.