TV show focusing on water women
Advertiser Staff
Wahine Blue — a Hawai'i-produced television program focusing on women's ocean sports — will make its debut Thursday.
The 30-minute show is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. on the Ocean Network (Oceanic digital channel 349).
North Shore waterwomen Betty Depolito and Leila Alli are the producers of the show, and they do most of the filming and editing themselves.
"I was watching all the other surfing shows on TV and noticed there was hardly anything on women," Depolito said. "That was irritating to me and I wanted to do something about it."
Depolito said a show will be produced each month, and the plan is to incorporate various ocean sports into each show.
"It's not just surfing; swimming, paddling, anything related to the ocean," she said. "There are so many girls out there doing all these different sports, so I think there was a need for something like this."
The inaugural show will include highlights from the Duke's OceanFest, as well as profiles on bodyboarder Daniela Freitas-Ronquilio and surfer Megan Godinez.
WOMEN'S TOUR UPDATE
Hawai'i surfers Megan Abubo and Melanie Bartels are tied for 10th on the 2007 World Championship Tour for women after last week's Billabong Girls Pro Brazil contest.
The Brazil event was the third of seven contests on the 2007 tour.
Abubo and Bartels each have 1,272 points through the first three contests.
Stephanie Gilmore, a WCT rookie from Australia, is currently ranked No. 1 with 2,508 points.
Kaua'i's Rochelle Ballard is No. 17 with 540 points.
The next contest is the Rip Curl Girls Festival, which is scheduled to start next week at Santander, Spain.
The men's tour is on a break until Sept. 9.
BODYBOARDING UPDATE
Three Hawai'i bodyboarders are ranked among the top 10 of the International Bodyboarding Association 2007 Men's World Tour after the completion of the Sintra Pro last week at Portugal.
Mike Stewart of the Big Island is ranked No. 5, David Hubbard from Kaua'i is No. 7, and his older brother Jeff Hubbard is No. 9.
Jeff Hubbard is the defending world champion.
Ben Player from Australia is currently ranked No. 1.
Last week's contest at Portugal was the fourth of eight stops on the 2007 tour.
The next event is scheduled to run in October at Venezuela.
The final two events of the tour will be staged in Hawai'i.