8 Awesome Quotes From Tyler Wright's Surfing World Interview

2 Oct 2014 5

Do you have any idea how good the Women’s World Title race is right now? The clunky ASP system that allows surfers to drop their two worst events of the year makes it hard to understand, but make no mistake, this is the best World Title race in some time. Tyler Wright is aware of that. She’s currently World No.2, has just won the Roxy Pro in France and despite spending most of the year in the background of the Title race, has leapfrogged Sally and Carissa and now with Stephanie Gilmore, the four of them are set for the best showdown in years.

Surfing World Magazine spoke to Tyler just before she boarded a flight to France for the latest issue. Here are 8 stand-out quotes from the conversation.

Tyler Wright's tube game is on lock. Photo: Grambeau

On coming second in the World Title race last year:

“…this will probably sound bad but I felt amazing! I was like, ‘This is messed up! I’m not meant to be here.’ No way did I feel like I lost at all. But I always tend to look at things that way. What I did last year was really cool. I learned a lot and this year I feel like I’ve been learning more too.”

On sibling rivalry and learning to tube-ride:

"My brothers and I used to play chicken out the front of where we lived on the South Coast and they’d always school me on how to barrel ride. The waves out front were super gnarly and they’d call me in and I didn’t want to be the chicken so I’d just be like, ok. … I learned early you don’t argue with my brothers. When we used play chicken, the beating your ego would take if you pulled back was a billion times worse than just having a go and getting smashed by the wave.”

On knowing who she is:

“I realised a couple of years ago that if I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do it my way. I want to have fun and be myself. If you try to be something you’re not you’ll always be under pressure. You’ll begin to question yourself, ‘Am I doing this right? Am I doing the right thing?’ It creates doubt. But if you do things in your own way, you can stuff up and it’s not the end of the world because you stuffed up on your own terms.”

On being looked up to by young women:

“The people I look up to are the people who love what they do and love being themselves. It’d be an honour to be looked at like that.”

On the state of Women’s surfing:

“When I was a kid there was Splash Magazine which was a girl surf mag liftout from one of the other surf mags that came out once a year. That was the only surf magazine dedicated to women’s surfing and it lasted four issues. It hasn’t gotten the coverage that it could have but all things progress. Women’s surfing has progressed, we have a legitimate Women’s World tour at challenging breaks and fantastic webcasts that showcase our surfing to the world. Most girls are pushing the limits. Fiji was inspirational. It keeps moving forward.”

On the lack of surf media coverage of women’s surfing:

“It doesn’t actually matter if they are not. I saw Steph on the cover of Jet Star Magazine. Laura’s in Cosmo, Sally’s in Women’s Health and Fitness. The girls have huge social media followings. Alana Blanchard is the most recognised surfer in the world on Instagram. Coco, Laura, Steph, their followings are ridiculous and fantastic. They have more followers than any surf magazine. the girls never received the coverage they deserved so they went out and took it.”

On the Women’s tour being labelled hotter than ever:

“It cheapens the performance. It degrades our sport. It degrades everyone who has worked their arses off to be in the top 17. To say the girls on tour now are super hot, well yeah, we are beautiful and all women are beautiful, but we are athletes and I’d much rather be acknowledged as a fantastic athlete than someone who looks a certain way.”

...and:

“A lot of people are beautiful whether they’re considered hot or not and I don’t find it just degrading to women, I find it degrading on a basic human level to be defined by one thing, especially when it’s as shallow as how you look.”

The full interview by Vaughan Blakey can be read in Surfing World Issue 355 with Gabriel Medina on the cover – on sale now.