"I'm pretty competitive, so I definitely want to get at least another third," Hareb said after her semifinal loss to Gilmore. "[The hometown crowd] is pretty cool. It gets you pumped. I kind of lost my breath out the back; I had to take a few deep breaths, but looking back and seeing everyone here--friends and family and a lot of Taranaki--it's pretty cool to see."

The secret to beating Sally Fitzgibbons is having fun, Lakey Peterson said after quarterfinal number three, which was a rapid-fire exchange between the two. Each surfer put down nine scores, but Peterson led right through the heat and actually had the title contender in a combo situation for a while. She again demonstrated her strategic prowess as she used priority to block Fitzgibbons from catching a score booster in the final minute.

"Sally surfs amazing and whenever I surf against her, it makes me surf better. She really inspires me," Peterson said. "Beach breaks just fit into my style of surfing. I'm excited for Brazil--I think it will be really fun over there."

"This should help my campaign a little bit [for Rookie of the Year]," she continued with a laugh. "It's a big goal of mine and after this result, it should put me in the lead for that, but all of the rookies are so good this year. We'll see what happens." The path to the final was fraught with land mines. For Gilmore: Tyler Wright and Paige Hareb. For Moore: Courtney Conlogue and Peterson.

When last year's World Champion met her successor in the water on Saturday afternoon, it was ...boring. Only at first, though. A colossal set marched toward the black sand just after the heat began, but 10 minutes in, no waves had been ridden and officials called for a re-start. This was unfortunate for Moore, who had, at that very moment, tucked into a radiant, sea glass green tube.

"I was like, 'Really? We're re-starting right now?'" she said later, laughing. She brushed it off and executed four huge backside carves on her next ride. Her form was impeccable. Gilmore replied with three successive vertical snaps--the third of which was insanely quick and polished. Moore drew clean lines, smashed lips to smithereens, and stuck reverses while Gilmore stylishly finished off layback hacks and beyond vertical re-entries. In the end, Moore was the one spraying champagne on Gilmore (she apologized for hitting her in the side of the head). Gilmore took the handcrafted trophy, but it was a provocative match-up and it will be interesting to see how the top three go at the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic in Sydney next week.

"I love to be pushed and Carissa had a little bit of a slow start to the year, but she's just surfing stronger and stronger than ever," Gilmore said. "Yeah, I'd love to have some more finals with her in good waves. I think both of us push each other."

"I'm just feeling being on Tour right now. I feel like it's where I should be and I enjoy doing it, and we've had pretty decent waves at each event, too!" Gilmore added. "It really helps--you get so excited to go surfing. I'm excited for the Layne event. It's always a pretty challenging wave--it's either the point or the beachy and they're both wobbly waves, but I always have fun there."

"I'm looking forward to a new event, another clean slate, and hopefully getting some good waves," Moore said of the upcoming Dee Why comp.