Return to Top
  • Full Frame

Alana Blanchard, frontside slice, Gold Coast

More Instagram followers than Kelly Slater, signature bikinis, biopic TV show, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot, newly-acquired boyfriend vaulting her into power couple status (Jack Freestone!), and she clocks 17.87 heat totals? Some girls really do have it all. Today at the Roxy Pro, Gold Coast, Alana Blanchard (pictured) beat Coco Ho in round four with aforementioned total. Stab believes that women’s surfing, right now, is better than it’s ever been. And not in the well-duh-it-progresses-every-year kinda way. It’s, like, way better. It’s a different flavour of exciting to the mens. Standing on the beach at the Roxy Pro is a thrill. Especially when Alana here is loosening her tail and combo’ing like this. Get at it live in the morning, here.


Photographer profile

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller, 33 years old, does not know how to write a bad email. Your pals at Stab have learnt to live vicariously through Miller’s red wine-fuelled letters from the road. His travels take him to some dreamy locales and, in those places, he scores all-time photos: “My favourite photo I’ve shot was of Benny Bourgeois in the Caribbean, with a fisheye. Often I just take photos, but rarely do I get to make one.” In an age of tail-highs and released fins, Ryan still most likes to shoot someone who can lay-down a big backside turn. Namely: Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds, Gabe Kling, Kekoa Bacalso, Damien Hobgood and Peter Mendia. Like most photogs, Miller misses Scott Aichner’s work. But, as far as contemporary inspiration? “Trying to see things through my daughter’s eyes. It’s wild to think about someone experiencing something totally new on almost a daily basis when, as adults, we rarely get to experience something truly new.”

More photos from Ryan Miller
Visit Ryan Miller's site here

All FULLFRAMES