Australian surfer Stephanie Gilmore made history Thursday with a record-breaking eighth world surfing title.
Her last title came in 2018, but she finally surpassed previous record-holder Layne Beachley at the World Surf League finals in California. Beachley congratulated Gilmore, calling her a “f–king legend” in a comment on an Instagram post by surfing magazine Tracks.
Gilmore made her debut in 2007, becoming the only surfer to win a world title in her debut season. Her 33 WSL event wins are the most of any woman surfer.
This year, though, didn’t get off to a strong start for the Australian. The 34-year-old missed the season opener with COVID-19 and earned just one event win throughout the year, and she entered the Rip Curl WSL Finals ranked fifth.
“I really feel like this year emotionally was one of the toughest years,” Gilmore told Olympics.com. “Mentally I had to dig deep on a much gnarlier level than I’ve ever had to before.”
In her opening heat Thursday, Gilmore trailed against world No. 4 Brisa Hennessy but secured the ride she needed to win with less than a minute to go.
She won three heats in a row and then faced defending world champion Carissa Moore in a final surf-off.
Moore had won the previous two titles and entered the finals with the most regular season points after finishing second three times this season, third twice and winning one event.
“Carissa is really the world champ to me this year,” Gilmore said. “She’s had the best season ever. I’m so honored to surf against her in this final.”
Moore was quick to congratulate Gilmore on her title, calling her “the GREATEST of all time!” in an Instagram post.
“An honor to surf against you always,” she wrote. “Congratulations on your 8th title! Wow! 8X!!! Holy moly. Five X 35 min heats in one day with all the pressure and win or die situations…it’s all yours undoubtedly.”
Gilmore appreciated the support she received from Moore and from others after her record-breaking win.
“I had so many of the women on the tour come up to me after this event,” Gilmore said, “and they just all said to me how inspired they were by the fact that I didn’t have the best year, but I was still able to pull through with an incredible, incredible performance in the last event to make it happen and be a world champion. And that made all of them realize that, hey, we can do this.”
She called that moment “really rewarding.”
“I just felt so happy that I was able to give them that confidence because they’re all such incredible athletes and we’re all progressing the sport together,” she said. “And if I can help push that along, not only in my own actions, but to inspire my peers to do the same thing, then job done.”
Carissa Moore is a world champion once again.
The Hawaiian surfer won the inaugural Rip Curl WSL Pro in San Clemente, Calif. on Tuesday to capture her fifth world title.
It was the first time ever that a one-day surf-off crowned the world champion after the WSL announced a new championship layout earlier this year. Previously, the rankings at the end of the championship tour determined the winner.
Moore defeated Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb in a best-of-three final to close out the 2021 World Surf League Championship Tour. Weston-Webb, who ranked second on the CT tour, bested Moore in the first round 15.20-14.06. But Moore rebounded in the next two rounds to take the title with a final score of 16.60-14.20.
The victory caps a landmark year for Moore, who won the first-ever surfing gold medal this summer at the Tokyo Olympics. It also makes her the first Hawaiian woman to win back-to-back world titles since 1981.
Moore now has the second-most titles in women’s surfing history behind Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore and Layne Beachley, who each have seven career world championships.
Tyler Wright is taking to Just Women’s Sports’ Instagram at the WSL finals to show us what’s going down at Lower Trestles and discuss the groundbreaking finals.
“For the first time ever, both men and women’s world champions will be crowned on the same day in the same conditions,” she said during the takeover. “That has never happened and it’s, I think, a huge moment and it’s a huge agenda-setting moment for our sport.
“You can really see the shift in backing women.”
Surfing legends Jessi Miley-Deyer, Lisa Andersen and Debbie Beacham also stopped by to discuss how far surfing has come in terms of equality.
“It’s almost unbelievable for me, for someone like me,” Beacham said. “Because we were there at the very beginning, the very pioneering of it. To have worked so hard just to get a seat at the table. And now we’re not only at the table, we’re at the banquet.”
The Rip Curl WSL Finals were called off Thursday due to poor conditions, with next call coming on Friday at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The first-ever Rip Curl WSL Finals are coming to California.
Starting today, surfing’s top competitors will descend upon Lower Trestles, San Clemente to crown a WSL champion. For the first time in WSL history, the men’s and women’s winners will be named on the same day in an unprecedented winner-takes-all event.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Finals:
The format
The 2021 Championships will take place in California in a one-day event between Sept. 9 and Sept. 17, dependent on conditions.
Five surfers will participate in the title contest based on the points they accrue on the Championship Tour. The top six results (out of eight events) decide the final WSL leaderboard rankings.
The competition has a bracket structure, with World No. 1 Carissa Moore awarded an automatic bid to the Title Match. The four other surfers will go head-to-head, moving up through the WSL bracket. Match 1 will feature fourth-ranked Stephanie Gilmore and fifth-ranked Johanne Defay, with the winner moving on to face World No. 3 Sally Fitzgibbons. The champion of Match 2 will then take on No. 2 Tatiana Weston-Webb in Match 3. All head-to-heads will feature a traditional heat format.
The surfers
Carissa Moore: As the World No. 1, Moore comes into the WSL Finals having already secured her place in the Title Match. The Hawaii native has dominated surfing over the last decade, surging to the top of the sport in 2011 when she became the youngest person to win the surfing title at 18 years old. Since then, she has taken home a total of four World Championships, most recently clinching the first-ever Olympic surfing gold medal at the Tokyo Games. Moore boasts an impressive 14.48 average heat score and 23 heat wins, making her the favorite in Trestles.
Tatiana Weston-Webb: Weston-Webb has had a consistent 2021 season, winning the Boost Mobile Margaret River Pro presented by Corona back in May. Named WSL Rookie of the Year in 2015, Weston-Webb has climbed the WSL rankings since her debut on the Championship Tour. Weston-Webb, who previously topped out at No. 6 in 2019, is now No. 2 heading into the Finals. The 25-year-old could make history in California, competing to become the first Brazilian woman to win a World Title.
Sally Fitzgibbons: Fitzgibbons has been a top competitor in surfing since exploding onto the scene in 2009 as the WSL Rookie of the Year. The Australian reached a career-high ranking of World No. 1 in 2019 after winning in Rio. After over a decade in the sport, Fitzgibbons comes to the WSL Finals looking for her first-ever World Championship.
Stephanie Gilmore: Gilmore is a surfing legend, considered to be one of the greatest competitors in the sport’s history. The 33-year-old burst onto the scene in 2007, becoming the first surfer, male or female, to win Rookie of the Year and a World Championship in the same season. Gilmore has won seven World Titles, most recently lifting the WSL trophy in 2018. In 2010, the Australian was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame, solidifying her place in the sport’s history. Gilmore will look to shatter a new record in California, becoming the first woman to win eight World Championships.
Johanne Defay: Defay has consistently finished in the Top 10 since her WSL tour debut, reaching No. 5 in 2016 and 2018. The French surfer moved all the way up to No. 2 in the rankings during the 2021 season after winning the Surf Ranch Pro title. The 27-year-old now has a chance to make history at the WSL Finals as the first European woman to take the World Title.
How to watch
The Rip Curl WSL Finals will stream on WorldSurfLeague.com and YouTube between Sept. 9 and Sep. 17, with the actual day of competition determined by conditions.
The 2021 Rip Curl WSL Finals are just around the corner.
For the first time ever, surfing’s top athletes will gather for a one-day event to crown two indisputable champions of the sport, with both the women’s and men’s finals happening on the same day. The top five leaders from each tour will descend upon Lower Trestles, San Clemente, Calif., for the winner-take-all tournaments. A nine-day waiting period begins Sept. 9, with conditions determining when the single-day event is ultimately called.
“I think the WSL Finals and having that format for the first time ever is going to be really exciting,” Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL’s Head of Competition, tells Just Women’s Sports.
Going into the Finals, all eyes will be on World No. 1 Carissa Moore, the heavy favorite to win a title in California after capturing the first-ever Olympic gold medal in surfing. For Miley-Dyer, the sport’s Olympic debut was a pivotal moment, “a statement of validation for not only the athletes but also us as a sport to be in there for the first time.”
“To have so many new eyes take notice of our athletes in particular is cool,” she adds.
Miley-Dyer and the rest of the WSL are counting on more than a few of those new eyes to tune into the Rip Curl Finals, where Moore will be joined by Tatiana Weston-Webb, Sally Fitzgibbons, Stephanie Gilmore and Johanne Defay in the Finals bracket.
On the men’s side, Gabriel Medina heads into the competition ranked No. 1, followed by Italo Ferreira, Filipe Toledo, Conner Coffin and Morgan Cibilic.
The choice to hold the women’s and men’s Finals on the same day marks an intentional and transformative shift by the WSL.
“It’s a huge moment on the women’s tour because it’s the first time ever we’re going to be crowning a women’s world champ on the same day as the men’s,” Miley-Dyer says. “The thing that I love about that is that we will have both our best male and best female stand there together as the heads of the sport.”
The men’s and women’s joint Finals preview a new, long-term structure for the WSL, who recently announced a fully integrated schedule for the upcoming season. Starting in 2022, the Championship Tour will feature ten regular-season events highlighting a combined women’s and men’s schedule, beginning with Pipeline, Hawai’i on January 29.
“It’s really important to me that we have those opportunities for men and women to be able to compete at the same amount of events, but also for us to be having the tour the same, it also means that women are surfing really good waves,” Miley-Dyer says.
The new WSL structure will also feature a third competition tier to go along with the Championship Tour and Challenger Series, dedicated to regional development. The WSL hopes that the regionalized series will increase access to the sport while providing fresh faces an avenue to qualify at “the very highest level.”
As a surfer on the Championship Tour for six years, Miley-Dyer remembers her junior career as successful and supportive, with great sponsors.
“I’m very passionate about other surfers getting to have those opportunities as well,” she says, speaking to the WSL’s commitment to development and investment.
The WSL previously made history in 2018 when it became one of the only sports leagues to announce the implementation of equal prize money for men’s and women’s competitions. Now, the revamped tour structure picks up where the equal pay push left off.
“We believe really strongly in equality, and one of the things when we announced equal prize money is that it’s a really strong statement about the value of the women’s tour to have the women’s surfers be paid equally,” Miley-Dyer says. “Coming off of that, when we looked at the Challenger Series, we were like … there is no reason why we can’t have the same amount of events for men and women and in the same spots.
“It’s the right thing to do and we are committed to doing it.”
Tune in: Rip Curl WSL Finals begin as soon as Sept. 10. Check out worldsurfleague.com or the WSL App for updates.
Tyler Wright’s career has been full of ups and downs, joys and hardships.
The Australian superstar surfer stopped by the latest JWS podcast to talk about her early rise to stardom and how she battled back from a career-shattering illness.
Wright rose to prominence at a young age, winning her first Championship Tour event at just 14, becoming the youngest surfer in history to do so.
In hindsight, Wright says she might not have been psychologically or emotionally prepared to be shot to surfing superstardom so early.
“It was so overwhelming,” Wright remembers.
Now 27 years old and a veteran of the tour, the surfing phenom is driving conversations about education requirements and mental health in the sport. Wright personally knows the downside of doing too much too soon. By the time she was 18 years old, Wright already felt burnt out on the sport.
“I didn’t know how to ask for help,” says Wright.
Amid dealing with her own personal struggles, Wright’s brother incurred a life-altering brain injury during a surfing competition in 2015. The young surfer sprang into action to help her older brother, an experience Wright says changed her perspective on her career.
She went on to win back-to-back WSL championships, first in 2016 and then again in 2017.
“I just got it done,” says Wright of her multiple titles. The world champ says surfing became a haven from the stressors and traumas happening outside of the sport.
“It was a way of expressing how much was in me at the time.”
During the 2018 season, things came to a screeching halt for Wright when she contracted influenza A and then developed a post-viral infection. Wright says she had consistent headaches, lost nearly 40 pounds, and was bedridden for over a year.
The diagnosis, as you can imagine, was difficult to accept, let alone fight through.
“I was still trying to fly to events,” Wright says, before the surfing phenom had to accept that life as she once knew it was no longer an option. After being sidelined for 2018 and 2019, Wright finally found a specialist who could help her get back to surfing form.
“It was the hardest thing I have ever done.”
Now healthy and with time to reflect on her road to recovery, Wright is ready to change the sport of surfing for good. In 2020, Wright made history as the first surfer to compete with a Pride flag on her jersey. Earlier in the year, she made headlines by taking a knee before one of her heats for 439 seconds — one second for each of the 439 First Nations person in Australia who have lost their lives in police custody since 1991.
Wright has also been outspoken about changing the culture of surfing to make it a more inclusive sport.
“For me, it is policy change, it is about health and wellbeing frameworks for athletes,” says Wright.
You can listen to Tyler Wright’s full conversation with Kelley O’Hara here.
Hawaii’s Carissa Moore made history today during the second stop on the World Surf League Championship Tour in Newcastle, Australia.
In landing the biggest aerial maneuver of her career, a rare air reverse, Moore earned a near-perfect 9.90 points (out of a possible 10). She also moves up to the World No. 1 spot on the WSL rankings.
“I was in disbelief that I made it,” Moore said when asked about the achievement. “For that all to come together it felt amazing. It’s something I think about a lot, trying to be innovative, to push maneuvers above the lip and I was really stoked to make it.”
While the four-time WSL Champion and Team USA Olympic qualifier might be in the business of pushing women’s surfing to a higher level, she attributes the level of competition to her evolutionary mindset.
“It’s definitely something I’d like to bring in more often into my heat surfing and hopefully at the Olympics,” Moore said. “You have to keep reinventing yourself when you’re amongst this field. All of these girls are so good and constantly pushing the level of surfing.”
Tyler Wright is now the first woman to ever win a Championship Tour event at Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, but her history making performance on the 2021 tour doesn’t stop there. After battling back from post-viral syndrome that took her away from surfing for more than two years, Wright is not only crushing waves, but using her voice to expand conversations about equality in the sport. Wright recently sat down with JWS to talk about being the first surfer to wear the Progressive Pride Flag, her activism around the Black Lives Matter movement, and how illness changed her perspective on life.
To start here, I want to acknowledge the tragic passing of a recreational surfer at Honolua Bay. How did surfers react to that?
It’s always tragic and it’s always sensitive and kind of traumatic. No one ever sees it coming. I think there’s a lot of shock involved in what happened at Honolua and the tragic passing of that gentleman. I think it caught everyone by surprise.
You put up some impressive scores including a perfect 10. How does it feel to be back in the water for the 2021 Championship Tour?
I’m really grateful that I can even be in this position again. It’s been quite the journey to get here and to be able to really go out and enjoy the start. To be back in the water and start the 2021 championship season, I feel really grateful and intentful on what I’m here to do.
And the first Perfect 10 of the 2021 Season goes to... @tylerGwright. pic.twitter.com/rBwN5ZjUjG
— World Surf League (@wsl) December 8, 2020
In addition to your perfect 10, you made history by adding the Progressive Pride Flag to your jersey. What drove you to do that and what was the process like to get that done?
There’s a few different things that really led me to that. I fell in love a few years ago, and that changed my life forever. It was one of those things. I had a few conversations with my friends at the time — this is back in 2018 before I got sick — it kind of came up then, and because of the incredible human being that I had met, wanting to thank her. I wasn’t really publicly out. I think it’s been quite the journey between there and now, and understanding the importance of representation, the importance of inclusion and what it actually means to see that in surfing.
I essentially asked the WSL if I could surf with the Progressive Pride Flag, and they were completely behind it and have supported me all the way through. It’s two-fold. Honoring those who have come before me and also for the generations to come to know that this is a safe space. And we’re aware as well that it’s important to continue these conversations around equality and inclusion
I think a lot of people in the LGBTQIA+ community, myself included, can really relate to the inner journey that you have to go on before you can exist publicly as this full version of yourself and everyone goes on a different journey. I’m curious if you could share a bit about your experience and what it means to be an out athlete.
I just didn’t get it at first, you know. When I first fell in love, I said, “No, I will not be known for my sexuality. My sexuality will not be part of my career.” I think people expect that if you do identify with the LGBTQIA+ community, that you all of a sudden don’t have internalized homophobia, whereas I felt that I was raised in a really homophic, racist, and sexist environment so I had that in me even though it’s not something that I really knew.
I think through this all, and when I got sick, and then through COVID, it allowed me to come back and ask “What athlete do I want to be? And what do I want to stand up for?” I just started noticing who was speaking about it and how inspired I was.
It’s been a journey to find out who I am, and what kind of athlete I want to be, and who I want to stand up for. It’s not something I embraced as a younger athlete, but I’ve been in the sport for a while now and am a bit more settled in who I am.
Generally speaking, when people think about surfing, they envision this environmentally conscious, laid back, liberal culture, but what would you say is the reality for LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC surfers and what work needs to be done to make the sport more inclusive?
The way I see it is that we’re not exempt. We’re not exempt from society’s great issues. The work does need to be done. It’s continuing those conversations whether that’s behind closed doors or in public. Like every sport, different issues show up in different ways and we have to think about how we dig in and get in the game, how we show up, how we do better.
You’ve been very public with your activism, what has been the reaction?
I’m sure there’s been a lot said on social media — I don’t put too much value in that. The conversations that have come from the Black Lives Matter protesting in Cabarita in October have been incredible. I feel extremely lucky to be in this position, and to have the platform that I have and to be able to use it in this way. It’s something that I don’t take for granted. I don’t agree with being a-political. It’s a human rights thing and human decency and I just don’t see how anyone can really argue with that.
Appreciate you sharing that. Looking at your career as a surfer, for the past two years, you’ve been battling through post-viral syndrome. What powered you through that time and has it changed your perspective on the sport at all?
Yup [laughs]. I don’t know what got me through that time still, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It was really rough, but I had a partner at the time who was with me for everything and helped me through that and without her, I wouldn’t be here today. I’m incredibly lucky that I am here today. It has changed me. I think that and COVID has given me time to think about what I want my career to be about and what I want to stand up for.
I definitely look at my sport a little bit differently. Two and a half years out is a long time for someone in the middle of their career to be out of their sport and to be able to reflect. Some of what I saw I didn’t like, and so I was vocal about it, and I will continue to be vocal regardless of what anyone really thinks. I think surfing has views and I want to challenge some of them. We’ve done a good job marketing ourselves as counter culture, rebels, progressive, but I think surfing is on the conservative side and has a dominant hetero-patriarchal ideology at its core. I definitely think there should be a few different voices in the conversation at surfing’s core to create a connected community. What will that look like? I don’t know. How does that happen? I don’t know. But you can change it publicly, you can change it behind closed doors, you can change it with conservations.
In the same vein of personally being changed, from the sport side, you just mentioned being away from a sport in the middle of your career for two and a half years. Did the sport change at all in terms of style or technique in that time?
In a technical sense, I’ve watched a lot, and the things that I look for haven’t changed, but I think surfing is always progressing and you can really see that in our next generation between the ages of about sixteen and twelve at the moment. I’m so psyched for them to hurry up, well not to hurry up, to absolutely take their time with respect to the growing up process, but also the quicker they come up, the earlier I can retire. They are so good.
And what I like to see, which is probably one thing that I will note as being different, but the next generation, when they’re in the line up, they know they belong in the line up and I think that’s something that’s really different from when I came through. I love seeing the difference of mentality and I feel like that’s our biggest progress, the younger generation owning that they are that good. I love it, I love to see it.
That’s incredible to hear. As a parallel, you went through some really heavy stuff during the time that you were sick — periods of isolation and being apart from the things that you love. So many people are going through varying degrees of that right now this year. Do you have any general advice on staying focused and keeping your eyes on the horizon?
This year is rough and being able to conceptualize this year while we’re still in it and while so many different things are going on is almost impossible. It’ll take us a few years to really process what this year’s been about. One of my biggest things is having to adjust your expectations of yourself. I know with COVID it’s like well, if I get out of bed I nailed it, and if I don’t, you know what, I nailed it too. You have to find that balance of, without pushing yourself over the edge, engaging with things that you still like. For me, I love learning so I essentially just deep dived on the internet on women’s sports, sexism, racism, and read so many different books. I never ever watched sports in my life and now I’m the biggest women’s sports fan there is, I’m such a nerd. I’m trying to learn as much as I can and that’s what I really got engaged with. It’s something that helped me understand who I am a little bit more — the representation of these other incredible athletes and representation that I don’t have in my sport.
Different human beings have different journeys, but keep learning, keep educating yourself and if you feel like shit, it’s completely okay. It’s a judgement free zone. Don’t expect yourself to go out and win everyday. You are where you are and that’s incredible. You’re doing a great job.
I prioritize recovery, and understanding recovery as well. Some days your mental, emotional, and intellectual output is through the roof, so how do you recover from that? It’s about taking care of yourself, being mentally and emotionally aware, and asking for help as well. It’s been a rough year.
That’s all really important to hear. Shifting back to the tour, it’s changed a bit for 2021. Are there any changes that you’re particularly excited about?
One thing is the final, the surf off for the world title. For a competitor, that is what I have wanted for such a long time, just to surf the best against the best, woman on woman, best of three. I couldn’t imagine anything better, just as a purely competitive game. The way it was was cool and it’s fun, and there’s tension, but there’s way more intense competition if you’re just straight running at the person who is in second place. It’s a whole new game that none of us have played.
So it’ll be the top five surfers who will be competing for the world title at Lower Trestles?
Yeah so five and four will face off, and then whomever wins that, four and three, three and two, and then two and one go head-to-head for three rounds. It’s that next level of competitiveness, that next level of strategy and analytical thinking — it’s so fun.
Speaking of the best of the best, I was watching you in the quarterfinals against Stephanie Gilmore. That was incredible. You’re both such powerhouses, you’re fellow Australians, what is the vibe like when you’re out there competing against your peers?
Steph and I have known each other for a long time. The last ten months we’ve all gotten so close, we all live in the same area, and at the start of COVID I was kind of okay, but I wasn’t really. I was still really heavily having PTSD, I was still having heavy flashbacks and was kind of functioning, but not really and I was still really underweight. But it was one of those things where Steph was like, “Come on, you’re coming to surf.” I would disappear for weeks on end because I was so used to isolation as well, I had kind of grown accustomed to it. But her and Nikki [Van Dijk] and some of the girls, they were like, “Come on, we’re going surfing, this is what we’re doing,” and got us into a pattern with surfing with everyone through COVID, and we only hung out with each other, about five or six of us. So coming back, we’re all like, “Okay, let’s do it.”
It’s wild to me because we’re all such good friends and really care about each other and still get to go and compete. You saw that heat in Maui, we weren’t holding back. On that last wave, on that 10, I knew the wave that she [Stephanie Gilmore] had before, and before I took off on the last one, I saw where she was and it didn’t look like she made it to the end so I was like, “Okay this is big, I don’t think she’s completed and this thing [wave] is lining up so good,” so 100% when I came out of that barrel I was like, “Yup, you’re done,” purely from a smartass competitive point of view. It was pure joy because I have been kicked around, I have been schooled by Steph so many times in that same situation. In the last few years, I’ve either won or lost against Steph. Actually, I’ve only lost against Steph, this was the first time I won, I’m pretty sure.
It’s hard to explain, but if you can have such close friends on tour, you’re the luckiest, and then to go out and know full well that you’re going to go out and absolutely go head-to-head and give it your absolute all, I don’t think there’s a better combination because you know at the end of the day no one care too much about who actually wins, we’re going to do it 100 more times throughout our careers.
It’s such a special and unique relationship and it’s so awesome, from our vantage point as fans, to be able to watch you guys. For some girls out there, they see surfing as this awesome sport, but being able to go out into the water and try it is really intimidating. Do you have any advice for those who are out there wondering how to even get started?
Literally just get started. I think surfing is a real equalizer. You’ve got this whole element, mother nature, and you’re literally working with mother nature on how to get good at something. It’s a really weird sport. As for leisure, social, physical, even mental, being out there in mother nature like that is one of the most beautiful things you could ever do. So my advice is to find somewhere that’s easy, getting a lesson always helps, but if you’ve got a friend who knows how to surf, just ask.
It’s a lot easier to mess up when your friends are there. One more question, what’s one piece of advice that’s really stuck with you in life through some of your most difficult moments?
I think learning about who you really are is an incredible journey. I think a healthy relationship with yourself is hugely important and one of those priorities in life. I don’t know if it sounds selfish or not, but I feel like it is the most important relationship. If you don’t have a healthy relationship with yourself, I don’t see how you can have healthy relationships outside of that. Finding out who you are and showing up for yourself as well.
I was reading Glennon Doyle, and there was a quote, “If there’s a choice between disappointing somebody else or disappointing yourself, choose somebody else” because you have to live with you everyday. I am 100% on the journey of life, which is learning and unlearning. Actually, that would be my advice, keep learning and unlearning, keep educating yourself, never stop. Especially in this COVID time, I feel like as a young woman who has been in the spotlight since I was really young, I am still learning how to become myself, what I want to stand up for, and how I want to show up.
As the 2021 WSL Championship Tour gets underway in Hawaii, Caroline Marks, ranked #2 in the world, spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how it feels to compete on the CT again after COVID-19 washed out the 2020 season, the upcoming summer Olympics in Tokyo, and what an incredible time it is to be a professional women’s surfer.
So bring us up to speed a little bit. How are you doing and where do we find you?
I’m doing great. I’m in Maui right now. I’m getting ready for the first event of the season, which is so exciting. It’s crazy that I’m actually saying that. The waves were amazing yesterday, some of the best Honolua Bay I’ve seen and surfed, so it was pretty awesome. I’m really, really excited to put the jersey back on. It’s been a long time, so yeah, just been in Maui and I’m enjoying that.
Surfing is definitely a unique sport in that you compete for so much of the year. Aside from the obvious, what impact has COVID had on the previous season and in prepping for the 2021 WSL Championship Tour?
I think this past year has felt like a really extended off season, that’s the way I put it. It’s weird, in a way I’ve been preparing the same as if the season would start the next day. Every day I still wake up with my daily goals and every day I’d work towards them. Once I heard the season was off, I definitely didn’t just forget about it or stop surfing a lot or stop training. I just kept on pace because I knew eventually they would say, ‘okay, we’re starting’ and I wanted to stay sharp and stay psyched.
Surfing is such an awesome sport, it’s something I want to do every single day. It doesn’t feel like a job. I wake up every morning and I want to surf anyways for fun, for my release. The last couple of months, I definitely ramped up my training and my surf hours for sure, but other than that, I have been doing the same thing. I have just been in one place instead of 10 different countries.
This tour’s title is the first that will be decided by a winner-take-all event at Lower Trestles next September, with the top five women on the tour leaderboard competing at that event. How do you feel about the new format and does it change your focus at all going into 2021?
I wouldn’t say it’s changed my focus. My focus is to win the world title and to surf my best every single event and give it my all — every time I paddle out, to go out there and win. That’s my goal, to go out there and not just to win, but to dominate and to give it my all and surf my absolute best and keep focused all year. So it definitely hasn’t changed my mindset. I’m going for the number one spot.
I’m so excited that it’s at Lower Trestles. That’s a wave that’s literally in my backyard. I live five minutes up the road from that wave, I ride my bike down there every day. So that’s really exciting and if all goes to plan, having my family there and all my close friends, that’d be so awesome.
I think it’s definitely cool to have a little change up. I’ve only been on the tour for a couple of years, I’m 18 now, but it’s cool to have a switch up. Regardless of what the format is, my goal every year is the same thing and that’s to win the world title. And I think also too, as far as from a fan standpoint, I think it will be really cool to watch the winner win in the water. I think that’s the ultimate feeling to win a world title in the water against somebody. It doesn’t get any better than that.
I saw at the men’s final last year, between Italo Ferreria and Gabriel Medina, it came down to the last final. It gave me chills. Number one and number two in the world were in the final and whoever won the final was the world champion. I think that is the most exciting thing ever. And that is the best feeling. Ferreria won the world title the best way you possibly could.
So the way the points break down this year, it’ll all have to happen right there in the waves in that moment?
Yea so no matter what, the top five go last. Fifth surfs against fourth and then the winner of that surfs against third and the winner of that surfs against second and the winner of that surfs against first, so if you’re in first place, you have an advantage because you have to surf less heats and you only have to beat one person. Last year me, Carissa [Moore], and Lakey [Peterson] were so far ahead that it was just three of us, fourth place wasn’t even in the world title race because of the points. This year you could be 10,000, 20,000 points behind from first place, but you can still win the world title. So that’s where it’s pretty crazy, but that’s where it’s also really exciting because it comes down to the last event, which is so gnarly, but so cool.
That’d be really cool, there’s nothing better than a solid in the moment contest.
And then too, you can tell all the fans ‘hey, guaranteed there’s going to be a world champ this event.’ So it’s pretty exciting.
To bring it back again to the here and now, what are you looking forward to most being in Maui?
It’s so awesome to have a little bit of a change of scenery. It’s nice to be back in warm water, warm weather. And obviously, just being around the girls in the water, just feeling that competitiveness and the free surfs and things like that. I’m just so stoked and I’m definitely looking most forward to putting the jersey on. That’s what I’m really, really excited about and I’m excited to see how everyone does. It’s been a whole year since we’ve competed — there’s been a few specialty events — but it’s been a whole year since we’ve competed in a WCT event so I’m really excited about that.
What do you think will be the most challenging part of the 2021 tour?
WSL is doing such an awesome job trying to make sure everyone’s safe with getting us all COVID testing and being in our bubble, but I think definitely getting used to that is a little different. I also think there might not be as many fans. The traveling might be the trickiest part. Just with timing, they really have to time everything like ‘okay I’m getting my COVID test today and then I have to wait a few days for the results’ and things like that. But other than that, once you’re in your bubble, it’s pretty awesome. You wear a mask and you know that all of the people around you tested negative, so you feel really safe. And then once you’re in the water, it’s the best thing ever because you feel free.
Is there anything about the schedule or the waves that you’re going to encounter at any of the locations that will make this tour different from others?
This year they’ve added Teahupoʻo for the girls, which is so amazing. We also have Sunset Beach and we have Steamer Lane, which is so awesome. It’s cool to have an event in California, and obviously Lowers is the most exciting ever. But it’s awesome to have Sunset and Teahupoʻo. I think that those waves are really going to push all of the girls. And I think bigger waves, heavier waves, more progressive surfing is the direction that female surfing is heading in more and more. Progression has gone through the roof the last couple of years, but it just keeps going up and up and I think those waves push the progression of the sport. I think that’s really exciting so I’m super stoked to have those waves.
You recently told the Olympic Channel that this past year really made you appreciate your lifestyle and getting to compete against your favorite surfers. What is it like to go up against role models and friends?
It’s really awesome. You know, I think all of the girls have such a great understanding of okay, when we’re in the water, we battle the hell out of each other and we’re here for one reason and that’s to win, but then as soon as you hit the sand, we can shake hands, be friends at the end of the day. I think that’s what’s so cool about all of the girls is that everyone’s cool and everyone’s nice, but we’re also all there to win. I respect that. It’s pretty awesome to compete against your heroes and it’s funny because I’m like, ‘I look up to all of you guys, but now I really, really want to beat you.’
Surfing is now an Olympic sport. What was your reaction to that news and what does it mean for the sport overall?
It’s really like a dream come true. Being a little girl, I never thought that surfing would be in the Olympics this soon. I think it’s so awesome. It definitely deserves that level of professionalism. All of the athletes and surfers I’m around, everyone works hard, everyone has a nutritionist, a trainer, everyone’s up early and doing their thing. Surfing is also such a cool and unique sport, I think it’s absolutely amazing to have it in the Olympics. That’s about the highest level of sporting you can reach so it’s absolutely amazing. It gives me goosebumps.
Will there be a shift in how you prepare for Tokyo compared to the Championship Tour and how are those two events going to overlap during the season?
I’m going to prepare like I do for any other contest. Every contest I enter I’m there to win, and I prepare the same. I prepare really hard. Every single one I try my hardest and I prepare my absolute best, so I’m not going to prepare any different [for the Olympics]. But I’m so excited and it should be absolutely incredible and so special to be able to represent my country. That’s the coolest thing ever. And to be the first one ever in the Olympics for surfing, that’s something no one can ever take away from me, which is pretty amazing.
For those who are less familiar with the technical aspects of competitive surfing, take us inside your mind a little bit. When you’re paddling out, what are you looking for in a wave and what is it that you’re there to accomplish?
Every wave is so different. Me paddling out at Teahupoʻo compared to me paddling out at Lower Trestles is completely different. Lower Trestles is a wave I describe as like a liquid skate park. It’s a really, really high performance, really fun wave. No barrels, it’s just really rippable. That’s where aerial maneuvers come into play, speed, power and flow, things like that, where Teahupoʻo you’re looking for the biggest, gnarliest barrel. So it’s two completely different things.
When you go out and surf, you’re pretty much looking for the best wave out there and to surf it your best. And the one thing that’s so cool about surfing is that it’s so unique, there’s never ever the same wave and I think that’s why you see people surf, you see 70-year-old people out there on longboards because it’s so exciting, it’s so fun, and it never gets old.
This is obviously a really pivotal time for female surfers. 2021 will be the first time that women have competed on the North Shore since 2010, and in 2019, the WSL announced equal prize money payouts for male and female surfers. These are two huge milestones for gender equality. How does it feel to be a female surfer right now and what more work does the sport have to do?
It’s so incredible and it’s so amazing to be a part of. I qualified for the tour in 2018, and the very next year they announced equal pay. I’m pretty sure WSL was one of the first organizations to do that in big sporting leagues. So it’s pretty amazing that surfing and the World Surf League was one of the firsts to put the right foot forward and say ‘hey, we are going to do this, and this is the message we want to send out.’ Another thing that was really cool, I think all of the men on the tour were really, really supportive of it. They posted about it a lot, which was so rad.
I think all of the women are really pushing themselves. Like I said, we have Teahupoʻo now and we have Sunset. Almost every single event for the girls and the guys is the exact same except for Pipeline, we have Maui and they have Pipeline, but every other event, we are with the guys, which is pretty amazing. Pretty incredible of WSL to do that, and it’s so incredible to be part of this movement. I think it’s just going to keep getting better.
So a little bit about you. At 15, you were the youngest surfer to ever qualify for the women’s Championship Tour. What impact has age had on your career and how you prepare physically and mentally for a competition?
Everything happened so fast for me. I used to ride horses and my older brother used to surf and I really got into surfing because of my older brothers. I just really wanted to impress them and for them to think I was cool and that’s why I started surfing. I’ve always been really, really competitive and as a kid I did everything, I played soccer, I played tennis, I played softball. I did everything you can think of.
I’d say when I was about 12-years-old is when I realized I wanted to be a pro surfer. And the year I qualified I was doing all of those events just for experience and just to compete against gnarlier girls in different places around the world. You can experience waves in Australia and in Europe and things like that. I just didn’t put much pressure on myself. I was just there to have fun and to learn. My only goal is to get better at surfing and that still is my goal every day, just to improve my surfing. I do believe at the end of the day, overall, the best surfing does win. So every day my goal is to just get better and better at certain things.
I qualified at 15 and I kind of never looked back and it’s been the best journey ever. I was never really able to look back on it until this year because I’ve had time to reflect on how awesome and amazing my life has been. And I’m only 18 now, I feel like the best years are ahead of me.
The cool thing about being so young is I feel like a sponge. I’m constantly absorbing things and I love learning. So I love when people tell me something, I really take it and I learn from it. It’s the best life ever. I would never change it for anything. It’s absolutely amazing.
When you think about your position in the sport as it is right now and the women who came before you and what they did to get the sport here, what legacy do you want to leave behind one day for the girls who are going to come up after you?
I want to show the girls that there is such an amazing future — surfing in the Olympics and there’s equal prize money. I always think ‘why not go surf that big wave? Why not try that maneuver that guys do that girls can’t, why not?’ And that’s the message I want to leave, go out there and get it. YOLO, you only live one life. Like why not? You know, that’s kind of what I think. That’s it and have fun. Make sure whatever you do in life, whether it’s surfing or not surfing, make sure you’re having fun. Surfing’s the most fun thing in the world to me.
What would be your advice to girls who are looking to get into surfing, who, you know, may never have picked up a board, but are watching you on TV or following you on Instagram?
I think consistency is key. Don’t give up, sometimes you can have a bad surf and get a little bit discouraged, but just go out there and keep trying. The ocean is the great equalizer, but it’s so much fun, it’s such an incredible sport. I’d say just grab a friend and go out there and try it.
What’s one piece of advice that you’ve received during your career that’s really stuck with you through some of the more difficult moments?
My coach has always told me, which is still my mindset, ‘you can not base your happiness off of results.’ It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I think that really separates me because being on the tour at 15, so young, you’re so used to winning everything and you have all these high expectations for yourself and you feel all of this pressure from everyone else that expects you to win at every level. I think just knowing that made me go, ‘oh yeah, you’re right. I’m just going to give it my all and that’s all I can ask for.’
Obviously every single time I’m paddling out, I’m giving it my all and I’m out there to win. But at the same time, I have my goals, my life goals, and I think as long as I keep working towards that every day, I’m happy. Like I said, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and I know everything’s going to happen when and the way it’s supposed to.
In September 2018, the World Surf League proudly announced that it would be awarding equal prize money to male and female surfers at all of its events moving forward. A few months later, Stephanie Gilmore earned her seventh World Title in the sport, tying her with Layne Beachley for the most women’s World Titles ever. Given her iconic status in the sport at the time of the equal pay announcement, she became a prominent face in the fight for pay equity.
Though Gilmore had been vocally calling for this change, she deflects ample credit to her predecessors like Beachley who fought for years for the right to compete against an entrenched sexism in surfing culture.
In a recent conversation on the Just Women’s Sports podcast with host Kelley O’Hara, who herself knows something about the fight for equal pay, Gilmore explains why she’s so proud of her “rebel” sport while discussing how she hopes to continue the fight.
We are pleased to announce that from 2019, equal prize money will be awarded to male and female athletes across all WSL controlled events. The WSL is proud to be the first American-based global sports league to offer gender pay equality. #CatchThisWave pic.twitter.com/y8cY8nlTc8
— World Surf League (@wsl) September 5, 2018
When Gilmore exploded onto the pro surf scene in 2007, winning the World Title her rookie season, prize money was still glaringly off-kilter. It was typical for her to earn $10K for first place in a single contest while her male counterpart earned $40-$50K. Even in 2018, just months before the WSL’s equal prize money announcement, Gilmore earned $65K for first place at the Rip Curl Pro while the male winner got $100K.
When pay equity in sport started gaining mainstream coverage in the late 2010s, it might have been tempting for surfing to stay in the margins as an alternative sport. One reason that didn’t happen is because their podium celebrations made them an easy target, with winners holding up large checks announcing exactly how much they each earned. And at junior surf events, this practice includes a photo op of the male and female winners standing shoulder to shoulder holding their giant (and lopsided) award checks. Proponents of equal pay helped one such image go viral:
"Rio Waida and Zoe Steyn Take Titles at Billabong Junior Series" https://t.co/GdLn7etanO#BillabongJNR #TheBallitoPro pic.twitter.com/SEK6cnfalq
— The Ballito Pro (@TheBallitoPro) June 24, 2018
Gilmore has an album’s worth of photos just like this. But in the zeitgeist of 2018, this blatant display of gendered pay disparity didn’t sit well with the public. (If only such outcry was customary practice across the world of sports.)
There are those in the surfing community who think the WSL’s equal prize money announcement was an opportunistic reaction to outside pressure, but Gilmore is more generous in her assessment. She credits the relatively new owners of the WSL with having a progressive vision for the sport and points out that they could’ve easily limited the equal prize money requirement to its top-level events where media attention is primarily focused. This is the current status in tennis, for example: only the four Grand Slams offer equal prize money. In contrast, the WSL has applied the new requirement to all events from top to bottom.
Gilmore points out it’s the lower level events where it has the biggest impact, as female surfers are scraping by to break into the scene and don’t have sponsorship deals yet.
“As a surfer that makes me so proud,” she tells O’Hara, “It’s like, wow, you guys believe in us.”
What matters even more to Gilmore than equal prize money is equal access to good conditions. For most of her career, it’s been common practice for the men’s heats to get priority when conditions were peak. If the weather shifted and the waves weren’t as ideal, they would often switch and have the women go out. She says things are different now. The women get equal priority. And the (not so shocking) result? The women are shredding.
“When the waves are good and the girls are ripping, everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god!’” she vents to O’Hara, “It’s like, we surf like that. We’ve just never had the chance.”
For Gilmore, these changes send a valuable message to surfers, fans, and the world at large. It’s a message that says we respect you and we believe in you. It’s about investing on the front end to give the women the best opportunity to succeed and then getting a return on your investment down the line.
“Build it and they will come,” she affirms to a well-aware O’Hara. It’s an adage ringing true in women’s sports everywhere, as we’ve seen record breaking viewership and consumer demand throughout 2020 as women’s sports get better airtime and promotion dollars.
Moving forward, Gilmore is excited to be a leader in growing the sport she loves.
“I really love showing people female surfing,” she tells O’Hara, “how beautiful it is and how inspiring female athletes are.” Her gratitude for the path her predecessors paved has been transformed into motivation to do the same for the next generation.
Her sole mission now: “To take women’s surfing to new heights.”
Listen to Stephanie Gilmore’s full conversation with Kelley O’Hara on the Just Women’s Sports podcast here.