I discovered these awesome quotes from Australian surfer Tyler Wright. Her words give an insight into her passion for surfing, the state of women's professional surfing, and who Tyler is as an individual. Finding this was a case of serendipity. I recently saw a magazine with Tyler on the front cover which piqued my interest, as features on women surfers are rare. So, I went searching and found this...

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 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 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.”

Quotes from an interview with Vaughan Blakey Surfing World Magazine (issue 355, 2014) and featured on the Coastalwatch website.