Thirty seconds remain on the clock.
The surfer takes off on an average looking wave. She is in fourth place in Round 1, in danger of not advancing.
The seconds tick by; the face of the wave welcomes her; the surfer looks down the line and attacks the wall of water in front of her.
The horn sounds; the judges jot their scores as the surfer paddles in.
The Americans on the shore stand up and take note. Who is that girl? They wonder.
That girl is 16 year-old Chelsea Roett and the scene was the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Rob Machado Seaside Pro Junior Event in California, United States. It’s one of the hardest events to get into if you are not ranked.
And Roett was not ranked . . . then.
And by the way, she made it out of the round, propelling herself from fourth to second place with 4.67 points, more than the 4.17 points she needed to advance.
Roett’s debut on the international surfing stage was nothing short of spectacular.
“I honestly was not sure how I was going to do knowing that surfers such as Lakey Peterson, Nage Melamed and a lot more really good surfers were at this contest,” she told WEEKEND Sports.
“I actually needed to do a contest such as this to be able to see what level I am at compared to the ranked surfers in the ASP,” she said.
The four weeks of early morning training in her wet suit added to at least eight hours [a day] in the water, along with the past year of dominating local surfing as well as experience on the international surfing scene, stood her in good stead.
And just to prove that her Round 1 debut was no fluke, Roett led all the way through her quarter-final heat, until eventual contest winner Lakey Peterson took off on a wave similar to the one Roett caught in Round 1 which pushed her into first place.
And while Roett’s third-place finish in the semi-finals might have been a disappointment for some, who were holding out hopes that the Bajan lass could beat the odds and make it to the final, for Roett, the seventh-place finish was almost as good as winning the final.
It gave her an ASP ranking of seventh and maybe, just maybe, a toe-hold into the next two events in July and August.
“I’m hoping to get a spot in these; however you don’t know if you are confirmed in them until a month before the contest,” she noted.
And with her ranking set to be confirmed a mere week before the July contest, Roett could see herself squeezing into that event just like she did with the Rob Machado Seaside Pro.
Add to them the Rip Curl Grom Search, the East Coast Surfing Championships and the NKF Pro/Am Surf Festival and Roett could find herself spending more time in international waters instead of her home break.
She credits a lot of her success to the local surfers who were always ready and willing to share their knowledge, her sponsors Lazy Days Surf Shop, Oakley, GTI Surfboards, Go Pro, Flying Fish apparel and her parents Wayne and Rachel Roett.
“This is a good start for my [international] surfing career and I’m leaning towards seeing where it takes me. But I’m currently studying with Ashworth College for interior design and am also considering doing a degree in business and if I can pack it all in; I also like the idea of fashion design.”
However, the teenager, who started surfing at the age of ten, does not see herself as a trailblazer for other up-and-coming female surfers.
“I like to think I am a good role model and am setting a good example,” she said.