Source :- THE AGE NEWS
By Dan Walsh
Surfing’s great survivor was still breathless and slightly babbling down the line more than two hours after the fact.
Sally Fitzgibbons is 34 years young, with 15 years on the world tour and the perpetually sunny disposition of a pre-teen grom, stoked to just be surfing.
For three years straight, Australian surfing’s grown-up golden girl has been the most recognisable face of the sport’s cruellest, manufactured fate.
The WSL introduced its contentious mid-season cut in 2022 in the name of drama and culling the world tour’s ranks from 16 permanent women’s surfers to 10 after the Margaret River Pro (May 17-27).
Bells Beach was the scene of a robust (or outright hostile) question and answer session between pro surfers and the governing body when the announcement was made, with an athlete petition against the move also presented and eventually dismissed.
And Fitzgibbons, a two-time Bells Beach champion and three-time world title runner-up, has been the highest profile victim.
Sally Fitzgibbons after upsetting world No.1 Caity Simmers.Credit: World Surf League
In the past three seasons, she has finished the Western Australia event in 12th or 13th place on the standings. Then she’s saddled up, still permanently smiling, still constantly stoked, for pro-surfing’s off-Broadway requalification process: travelling all over the globe for far-flung, often second-rate, waves to work her way back to the big time.
On Thursday morning with the Bells Beach Pro under way at nearby Winkipop, Fitzgibbons – ranked 15th in the world – stared down the same fate yet again.
She had been considering it for an entire week, given she earned her round-of-16 heat against reigning world champion and current No.1 Caity Simmers last Friday.
So when the swell finally came good and Fitzgibbons surfed for her life on her “home ground”, knocking 19-year-old Simmers out of the contest and keeping her campaign alive, you really can’t blame her for babbling a little bit.
Or actually get a question in.
“This is my therapy,” Fitzgibbons said with a laugh after a 12.73 to 10.10 upset of Simmers that sealed her quarter-final passage.
“To know where you sit in the rankings and draw the world No.1, you know what the task is and you’re trying to sleep on it and you can’t sleep on it, you know this is the good stuff.
“And then the heat starts with a 10-minute lull and so it restarts, the tension builds and you don’t know what’s going to happen next. It’s just a beautiful game.”
Sally Fitzgibbons takes to the air at Bells Beach.Credit: World Surf League
Fitzgibbons is the oldest surfer on tour this year with her former sparring partner Stephanie Gilmore extending her sabbatical.
She’s twice the age of 17-year-old Canadian prodigy Erin Brooks, but revels in the next generation “pushing my surfing to another level”.
And pushing back.
“Looking in your opponent’s face and seeing that, ‘Oh my God, she just won’t quit’ look. Classic,” she said.
It’s why Fitzgibbons keeps going, mid-season cuts and all. No need for a Kelly Slater-style comeback if you just stay on tour.
Sally Fitzgibbons with a young local surfer before keeping her season alive at the Bells Beach Pro.Credit: World Surf League via Getty Images
She’s by no means home and hosed, and still needs strong results at Bells, and across the Australian events at Snapper Rocks and Margaret River to steer clear of the dreaded, all-too-familiar cut.
But the emotion of beating Simmers on Thursday was plain to see when she held her head in her hands as the hooter sounded. And again when she embraced her parents, Marty and Mary, afterwards.
“I’ve already done a few laps of the world this year, and not been able to score any real points or get any traction in the [rankings] or have my best surfing come out,” she said.
“That’s a lot of 40-hour trips just sitting in a plane seat just thinking about the whole scenario, and you’re planning your days and whole life around those 30-minute heats.
“It all compounds and becomes so meaningful, so that’s where the emotion came from. It’s been a tough run of results, but I couldn’t be any more excited. I’m so pumped for the challenge of keeping myself going with the cut. It’s such a heavy scenario – you can really go from zero to hero.
“And going up against the best surfers, a world No.1, it’s, yep, I’m either packing my bags and going home, or I’m finding a light at the end of the tunnel.”
