Tatiana has got it all, looks, skills and a brain. She also has the support of her mum who was a former professional body board competitor, coming runner up at Pipeline in Hawaii and let''s not forget the major sponsor of Body Glove is in the bag.
Tatiana has made the Quarterfinals or better in six of last year's 10 events. In her rookie year. She finished 10th in the rankings and received the coveted ‘Rookie of the Year’ award.
She charges in waves of consequence as shown here:
She rips on her backhand; when the waves are small; in the tube. Okay, you get it, she is good.
My question is, why do we have to degrade her as an athlete by being made to see her like this.
I am aware that she has a bikini/wetsuit manufacturer as a sponsor and that she has to earn her money by advertising. But is that our sport? Is that how backward it is still? Can’t she just rip and that be enough?
You just have to ask the long list of female surfers that do rip but just can't seem to snag a major sponsor. Melanie Bartels HAW back in the day finished 3rd in the world, beat Steph Gilmore in a final and still got dropped by O'Niel in order to ,apparently, find some cash to sign Jordy Smith.
More recently , you have the sponsor-less Joanne Defay PYF, another rookie of the year in 2014 and had to have the backing of fellow pro Jeremy Flores in order to compete on the womens elite tour.
Other names we could throw into this conversation include Dimity Stoyle AUS, Silvana Lima BRA and Nicole Atherton AUS.
So to answer the question, no. It is not enough and we are lucky that Tatiana is not bad looking in a Body Glove bikini otherwise we might never have got to see how well she could actually surf.
tat
Joanne Defay
Has she beaten the system? No sponsor, no worries.