Ramzi Boukhaim + Sophie Mcculloch Get The Call Up For Banzai
Joao Chianca and Steph Gilmore out.
The opening event at Pipeline will see two WSL Finalists amiss.
This morning 8x World Champion Steph Gilmore announced she would be taking the year off to freesurf and travel, which as one Stab commenter put it, “is like getting a hall pass from your missus with your dream girl, only to then have to go back to reality. Life just is never the same.”
We’ll see how that pans out…
Joao Chianca on the other hand is missing because of a head injury he sustained surfing Backdoor in December that resulted in a two wave hold under and a trip to Queens Hozzy in Honolulu. Joao, who finished 4th in the world last season, will be replaced by Moroccan hunk Ramzi Boukhaim in the next two events at Pipeline and Sunset.
Luana Silva, who incidentally is Joao’s girlfriend, woke to good news that she will now take Steph’s spot as the next ranked surfer on the Challenger Series last season.
Similarly chuffed opening her phone this morning would be Sophie Mcculloch, a biomedical x marketing student and CT veteran, who was awarded the replacement slot for 2024 following Carissa Moore’s withdrawal.
Other local wildcards include: Moana Jones Wong, Shion Crawford and Jackson Bunch.
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