Alana Blanchard and the modern women’s surf trip

Today, Rip Curl gift us their newest Search mini-film, Expect Nothing. Alana Blanchard, Tyler Wright and Nikki Van Dijk light up somewhere in the Mentawais. Will they didn’t score the most amazing waves (by pro surfer gal standards), it still looks like a killer time. Below, Alana recounts some of the trip’s finer points, and ponders on the modern women’s surfing trip…

Stab: So, you know that area kinda well?
Alana: Yeah, that was probably my fifth or sixth boat trip. Coming into this year I was excited to do stuff like that, and even though we didn’t get the craziest waves, the surf was really fun, and just being there together was amazing. It was less stressful than the first trip I did. I went when I was 15 with Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly and Sofia Mulanovich. I don’t even know how I got on that one! Being comfortable with who you’re with is important and I was just really intimidated that first time ‘cause I was the youngest. I was seriously so shy. I don’t even know if I talked the whole time. And those guys were charging!

What were this trip’s highlights? I think just having Tyler and Nikki there was cool, we got to surf spots all by ourselves, just the three of us out there. And, being really carefree. You don’t have reception and you’re in the middle of nowhere. You don’t have to worry about anything. It was definitely cool not having your phone for a while. We were all like Oh My God at the start, but then you stop caring, you talk to people and just enjoy the moment.

Tell me about surfing with Tyler. Tyler is hilarious, she’s the funniest girl. She kinda does her own thing, I’ve literally never met anyone like her. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her… in a good way. She’s stayed true to who she is, ever since I’ve met her. Her surfing is so sick, too. She acts like she doesn’t care, then goes out and just rips. She’s so powerful in the water, but so understated on land. I think her power is very underrated. Seeing her on these trips, you realise how gnarly she is.

And, Nikki? She’s another funny one. She’s the same, just a cruiser. But, such a frother. She loves surfing more than pretty much anyone I know. She charges too, and I love her style. She’s just a down-to-earth chick, who loves surfing. That was her first boat trip and she had no idea that the seasickness was going to happen, but once she got over that I think she had a great time.

As a surfer, tell me about the importance of The Search. I guess that’s what all surfers do, we go searching for waves, whether it’s at home or overseas. We’re so lucky Rip Curl wants us to go search for waves around the world. It’s definitely a really cool thing to be involved with. Hopefully we’ll be able to do more trips, to places you don’t usually see all that much.

More from the Search, here.