Steph Gears Up

Will H-S


Steph floating over a dreamy Lakey left, on ASL's 250th trip. Pic Shield

Stephanie Gilmore has never lost a world title, she’s three for three. The kid from Coolie is a natural born competitor, but does winning all the time get boring? How does she prepare for competition? With one week left before the Roxy Pro gets rolling ASL had some questions for our reigning women’s world champ.   

What have you been doing since you won your third title in Hawaii?

It’s been pretty full on. I spent Christmas and New Years in Melbourne, hung out in the city and Torquay with family, and then went on a surf trip to P-pass and scored some pretty good waves. I got home mid January and started to make my way back into training and surfing.

The Roxy Pro kicks off pretty soon, how do you prepare?

I like to keep things simple, there’s no specific routine I do over and over again. I try and keep some good boards under my feet. I’ve been hanging with (shaper) Darren Handley heaps. It’s been cool to have him come surfing with me and take out one of my other boards out. So we can swap and do simple little things like that. I’ve also been surfing Snapper as much as possible, it was kinda pumping this morning.


Happy Gilmore and her third big cup. Pic: ASP

Who was ripping out there?

Kerrzy (Josh Kerr). Mick (Fanning) of course was on fire, Damon Harvey got some good ones and I saw Coco Ho get a couple too.

You’ve won the world title every time you tried, you're three from three. Often if you achieve something every time you try, it can get repetitive. Are you getting bored?

I think that if I was surfing like Dane Reynolds and I'd won every year then I’d be getting bored, but at the end of the day I know there’s so much that I can do to improve my surfing.

Like what?

Being more innovating and progressive. I dunno, there’s a lot to work on. There's other girls on tour who keep pushing me and the younger ones are starting to find their groove. It keeps getting harder and harder and the challenge for me is to stay at the top and I enjoy that.


Steph slicing through an Indo sunset. Pic Shield

There’s been a lot of changes to the men’s tour this year. Is it a good or bad thing that the ASP left the women’s tour alone?

Well we don’t really have the numbers or enough Qualifying Series events to make the one ranking system work. We’ve had an increase in prize money this year and I think we’ve got nine events, which is an improvement. There’s the new one in New Zealand and a couple of others proposed that are looking really good. I feel like things are on the up and in a way and I don't necessarily think following the men’s tour is the right thing for us. We’re such a different market and different breed of surfers, we should go out and do our own thing.

You’re a three times world champ and the first event is in your backyard in a week's time. Do you still get nervous at Snapper?

Yeah definitely, if I wasn’t nervous I think I’d be a bit worried. I think that would be the point where I’d be bored. Nerves are good, especially in the first event of the year. I love my home event, but it’s almost the hardest because you’ve got the hopes of the whole Gold Coast on your shoulders to do well. Of course being defending event champ and world champ is pretty full on too.

Last year Silvana Lima gave you a good run for your money, who’ll you be on the lookout for this year?

Yeah definitely Silvana again, she really stepped up last year. There’s the younger crew, Sally Fitzgibbons had a bit of a wobbly year last year but I think she’s pretty comfortable on tour now. It’ll be interesting to see how Carissa Moore goes too. So yeah, I think those three will be the hardest.


A glamorous Steph took top honours at the '09 Surfer Poll. Pic Will H-S

Last year you spent a bit of time travelling around the States and Europe, not really surfing, just checking out the sights. What are your plans this year?

Well this year we don’t have as long a break as we did in 2009. I’m kinda weighing up a few options. There’re a couple of Qualifying Series events in Europe that I’d love to go and show my support for, because the QS over there is kinda lacking and Europe is such an important place for our sport to have a strong presence. I’ll go and do those event and maybe I’ll end up in Paris or New York again, who knows? (Laughs)

Thanks Steph, good luck at Snapper, ASL will be there cheering you on.

Yeah thanks, see ya there. Woo!