Rochelle Ballard is an American professional surfer and a veteran of the Association of Surfing Professional's World Championship Tour. Due to her natural and skilled barrel riding technique, she is considered the best female barrel rider in the world. Through her passion, courage and skill, Rochelle has been a pioneer for the advancement of Women's surfing over the past two decades. Ballard's mastery of big waves and support of women's surfing, rank her among surfing history's most elite. She also co-founded International Women's Surfing and has appeared in several movies and television shows, most notably Blue Crush,Step Into Liquid, and Beyond the Break. In 2012, she became the ISA World Masters World Champion. During her years on tour, Ballard won 7 world championship events and in 2004, she was runner-up to the World Championship title. In 1997, at the Billabong Pro at Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Australia, Rochelle scored two perfect 10 barrel rides against Layne Beachley in the semifinals and went on to win the event, after beating Lisa Anderson in the finals. To this day, Ballard still holds the women's world record for scoring two perfect 10s in a single heat. Rochelle currently resides on the island of Kauai, where she owns and operates .
Biography and Highlights
Ballard was born Rochelle Gordines in Montebello, CA. on February 13, 1971. Her parents moved to the island of Kauai in Hawaii when she was six months old. The waves in Kauai are considered as some of the best in world and with the encouragement of four-time World Champion and Kauai resident Margo Oberg, she started surfing at 12 years old. Oberg had been a top surfing professional for more than three decades and was a mentor to Rochelle when she was first learning to surf the massive and dangerous waves that seasonally come to Kauai's north shore. “I really admired her big wave surfing,” said Rochelle in Christina Lessa's book Women Who Win. “She received so much respect for what she did. She took me out surfing quite a bit one year, spent time with me, gave me pointers, and encouraged me to brave larger waves. I developed a love for surfing, a love that is almost impossible to express. There’s an energy in the water that gives you every kind of feeling: peace, excitement, fear, a huge adrenaline rush, discouragement, frustration. The nature of surfing is such that you can’t control the waves. You have to flow with them and find the rhythm of the ocean in order to work with it and experience what the ocean has to offer. Surfing is an art—we draw a new line on each wave we ride. It’s also a science. You need to study the patterns of the ocean. And it’s an ongoing lesson, because every few years, the tides completely change.” Rochelle began surfing local competitions and then advancing to state competitions, and then on to nationals, and then on to the world amateur titles where she placed fourth in the World in 1988 and 1990. Her successes qualified her to surf professionally on the World Championship Tour in 1991. In 1991, the same year she went pro, she married cinematographer Bill Ballard. When she wasn't competing she was appearing in and helping her husband to produce a long string of women's only surf movies including the original Blue Crush. Since then she has been featured on local and national news as well as magazines such as Surfing, TW Surf, Surfer, SG Magazine, Surfing Girl, Women Outside, Women's Sports and Fitness, Fit Magazine, Sports Illustrated Women, People, National Geographic as well as some international magazines. She received multiple awards over the years by the surfing community and in surfer magazine polls for best female performance, best tube ride, most influential women surfer and most popular women surfer. Ballard served as a stunt double in Universal Pictures motion picture titled Blue Crush in 2002. She also starred in A Girls Surf Addiction, a surf film that O'Neill released in 2004. She also helped produce a "yoga for surfers" video series. In 2001, she starred in the surfing documentary 7 Girls. She co-founded International Women's Surfing and, together with O'Neill, launched the successful Rochelle Ballard Surf Camp series which focuses on advanced surfing techniques, cross training and education. Although Ballard never won a world title, she came close in 2004, winning second, and she has been a top-10 finisher since 1994. Her passion for the ocean and fearlessness in huge waves has made her an icon of women's surfing. Ballard currently resides on the island of Kauai, where she operates a surf, yoga and wellness business called .
Other Interests
Photography, journalism yoga, cooking and music.
Contest Highlights
2012 Women's Division ISA World Masters Surfing Champion 2004 3rd Rip Curl Pro, Malibu 2nd Billabong Pro, Teahupoo, Tahiti 2nd Roxy Pro, Fiji 2nd Roxy Pro, Australia 2003 2nd Billabong Pro, Teahupoo, Tahiti 3rd Magnolia Girls Pro. Portugal 9th Roxy Pro, Australia 9th Roxy Pro, France 2002 3rd Roxy Pro, Tavarua, Fiji 3rd Roxy Pro, France 7th Billabong Pro, Honolua 2001 2nd Billabong Pro, Teahupoo, Tahiti 5th Roxy Surf Jam, Fiji 9th Billabong Pro, Maui, Hawaii 2000 1st OP Boat Challenge 1999 1st Gotcha Girl Star Pro, USA 1st Hossegor Rip Curl Pro, France 1997 1st Billabong Pro, AUS 1st Kana Beach Lacanau Pro, France 1st Wahine Women's 1st Gunston 500 Women WQS), South Africa 1st Wahine Women's, USA 1996 1st Wahine Women's, USA 1st Town &Country, Hawaii 1995 1st Body Glove Surfbout VIII, USA
