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Alana Blanchard

Childhood

Alana Rene Blanchard (Lana) was born March 5th, 1990 in Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii. She grew up an only child, but her dad was a huge surfer and taught his daughter, Alana how to surf at the age of four. “Alana was different than most girls in Hawaii in wanting to surf, because most girls were not as into surfing then as they are now.” Later in Alana’s childhood, she met one of her best friends, Bethany Hamilton around when they were six years old. Alana and Bethany grew really close through their interest in surfing. Alana and Bethany started surfing in competitions and winning many competitions around age nine. At age thirteen, Alana witnessed her best friend Bethany go through a “tragic and gruesome” injury while surfing. Alana, Bethany, and Bethany’s father, Tom, were all out surfing off Kauai’s North Shore. Everything seemed to be going well that morning when “out of nowhere” Bethany had screamed that she had been bitten by a shark. Her best friend, Alana had been nearby when the attack happened and immediately went to help Bethany by wrapping her leash around Bethany’s arm to form a tourniquet. Bethany was rushed to the hospital and had to get her arm amputated, even with this “horrendous” accident, it didn't stop her from surfing. Alana and Bethany are still great friends today with their professional careers both taking off, and Bethany’s movie, Soul Surfer coming out. Alana had a different childhood than most other girls her age, because she was an amazing surfer and started winning many completions and going through this life-changing accident with her best friend.

Professional Career

Alana Blanchard Surfing

Alana takes a lot of criticism in her professional surfing career, due to the fact that she is a famous "swimsuit model" model for Rip Curl. Alana, however is an excellent surfer who can shred good enough to be a pro in the surfing tour. Alana took first place in her first ever professional competition at the short board 2005 T&C Women’s Pipeline Championships. Since that first win, she has also taken the title in many other competitions: Women’s Pipeline Championships, Hawaii; Rip Curl Girls Festival Jr. Pro, Spain; Roxy Pro Trials, Haleiwa, Hawaii; Billabong Pro, Pre-Trials, Hookipa, Maui; and Volcom Pufferfish Surf Series, Pinetrees, Kauai. She is still competing in many surfing competitions around the world, but having a hard time taking the title due to the fact that "surfing has become so popular with women." The competition is getting tougher and tougher, as good as that is for women surfing. It is harder for the women, like Alana who came into the sport when it wasn't as popular as it is now. Recently, Alana has competed in the U.S. Open of Surfing, where she wasn't too successful. She was knocked out in "Round 2, Heat 5." Recently Alana brought even more attention to herself in being more of a model than a professional surfer at the QS OPEN. Where she was seen just wearing a thong and a bathing suit top. This is normal for her coming from Kauai, however "it seems to be bringing more attention to her than she can handle in just hating on her surfing career more." Alana is expecting to perform well at her sponsor's event, the Rip Curl Women's Pro Bells Beach competition this month.

Modeling Career

Alana is known as the most popular women surfing model in the world. She is always seen on billboard around the world for Rip Curl, or being on a huge banner in the store window when you go to a Rip Curl outlet. She has over a million followers on Instagram and Facebook, which is why she receives so much criticism as a surfer. Being adored by so many individuals across the world people seem to think that she only gets votes in surfing completions for her looks. Which is not the case at all. As famous of a surfer Alana has been throughout her life though, you can’t deny the fact of her being a gorgeous model for Rip Curl. Alana is very shy in person, and it is hard for her when people come up to her at competitions wanting to get her autograph and not knowing that she actually surfed. Alana's most recent famous appearance in a magazine was in the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Magazine. It is a true honor for any women to be put in this issue of the sports ilustrated that only comes out once a year. Alana was said to be "watery sex icon" by many people, according to the popular Surfer magazine. She also recently made an appearance with the same love from her viewers in Maxim Magazine. This is also another highly popular magazine for female models to make appearances in.