WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, WHAT MAKES HER TICK, HOW SHE MANIFESTED THAT MOMENT AND WHY SHE’S NOT YET READY TO ACCEPT THE G.O.A.T MONIKER
This one feels different. I’m so excited for this opportunity. I’m nervous as hell, but I’m gonna win the world title tomorrow. Stephanie Gilmore stares at the three short sentences scribbled across the page. It was the last entry in her journal the night before the 2022 WSL World Title Finals Day. Then, at the time of writing, it was a manifestation of how she hoped it to be. To re-read those words several weeks later from the comfort of her Coolangatta home, knowing the outcome, the journey it took to get there and not knowing what the heck happens next, Stephanie’s skin prickles at the profundity and boldness of her claim.
“Stephanie’s skin prickles at the profundity and boldness of her claim“
“In the past, I’ve had that kind of confidence before, but I’ve never wanted to vocalise it,” she says as she settles in for our interview. Her return home to the Gold Coast as the most successful female surfer in history after her eighth world title win, while being full of celebrations and champagne, has been humbling. “I was doing an interview at the Rainbow Surf Club the other day and was like, Wow, this has come full circle,” she says. There’s perhaps no other building as monumental in Stephanie’s surfing story as this. Nestled on the shore between Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay, it’s home to Stephanie’s club, Snapper Rocks Boardriders, and is less than 500 metres from her first purchased unit and the luxurious apartment upgrade. “I was having flashbacks to the first time I won that event at Snapper as a wildcard at 17 years of age. And I feel like that was the defining moment for me, like, Okay, this is what I want to do with my life. And I know I can do it now,” she says.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
That event was the 2005 Gold Coast Roxy Pro. The roar from the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd on the Rainbow Bay Surf Club’s VIP deck was deafening during every one of Stephanie’s heats, with an obvious bias for the local teenager. Skipping school to slip into a competition vest as a wildcard, Stephanie defeated two world champions, Sofia Mulanovich and Layne Beachley, and then beat Hawai’i’s Megan Abubo in the final. That was the moment that changed everything. Like a perfectly executed slingshot, the win catapulted Stephanie into her surfing career. She signed a lucrative five-year deal with Rip Curl, continued her wildcard domination in 2006 by surfing through the trials at the Havaianas Beachley Classic to reach the final and, again, defeat Layne Beachley (at her namesake event, no less), and won the 2007 WSL World Title in her rookie year. We know what happened next is beyond comprehension, some would argue one of the greatest sporting moments of all time, and it’s certainly not lost on Stephanie. Being back, burrowing her toes into the sand of her home beach, Stephanie is comforted to know not much has changed. “It was just a nice feeling to know that you can go and achieve success in all parts of the world and feel like you’ve achieved greatness, but at the end of the day, you know, we’re still just going surfing. I have a lot of great energy from people, and everyone is excited that it’s happened. [But] the way that people [are] celebrating me is respectful,” she says.
“Stephanie has orchestrated respectful boundaries“
Stephanie has orchestrated respectful boundaries, and the public shares her view that she’s the down-to-earth person she perceives herself to be. Her perception is a reality, allowing her to live her best life. A glimpse into the Gilmore household leaves little wonder that it helped shape the human she is today. Stephanie describes her mother, Tracy, and father, Jeff, as “the coolest parents ever” and expresses her immense gratitude for how supportive and thoughtful they are. The frothing surf dad and more sensible school teacher mum complemented each other in raising their three daughters, Bonnie, Whitney and Stephanie. And while love was ever present, Stephanie explains their love language was more acts of service than words of affirmation. “We never really spoke the words ‘I love you’ to my parents, and for them to say that to us was always weird,” she laughs. “They showed us love through their actions. Giving up their Saturdays and Sundays to drive us to hockey, touch football, Little Athletics, nippers … [But] they were just chill, like they were never forcing me to compete,” she says. “Mum and Dad were a great team [raising] us girls. They instilled values in us that we’re to be grateful for [what] you have even if it isn’t much, to respect the people around you, and be active and healthy and have fun. They’re the values I still use and go right into my competitive career.”
Stephanie’s domination of competitive surfing started at an early age. Local comps, state and national titles, from age 12, it was almost expected she would grace every first-place podium while her opponents scrapped it out for second, third and fourth. And did she strive to win? You bet she did. “I loved it. I loved the trophy and the little prize bag you get after it. Like, winning at the Gromfest and the All Girls Surf Showdown, they were my highlights because I got this big goodie bag full of things my parents probably never would’ve bought me,” she laughs. “It also felt so natural to me to be dominant, and I was so competitive in every area of my life,” she says.
“No vicious rivalry, trash talk, feuds or soap-swapped-for-wax sabotage“
Yet, surprisingly, despite repeatedly wielding her winningness, albeit with her trademark smile, Stephanie rarely experienced vitriol or overt jealousy from her competitors. No vicious rivalry, trash talk, feuds or soap-swapped-for-wax sabotage. Perhaps, even if oblivious to it, that was one of the secret weapons that carried her through eight world titles. “The smiling assassin” as the WSL commentators often remarked.
Going through adolescence, particularly in a female-identifying vessel, is tricky enough to navigate in the privacy of your own world, let alone in the surfing spotlight. Imagine dealing with a developing body exposed in tight or minimal surfing attire, the shifting hormonal cycles affecting performance, and being in the public eye while experimenting with romance and relationships. Yet, Stephanie admits she started that journey with a blissful unawareness. “I mean, I was such a tomboy; I didn’t care about how I looked. It wasn’t until I got sponsored [that] I was like, I guess I have to look like something or tick certain boxes of being a stereotypical surf girl. Yeah, there was always a bit of unease there. Because I wasn’t like the pretty surfer girl. But at the same time, I knew deep down that dedicating my life to my craft was more important than how I looked,” she says. Stephanie believes that the rise of online exposure has undoubtedly changed the game. All teens had to worry about during Stephanie’s coming-of-age era—the early 2000s—was what their auto-play Myspace song would be. Now, a digital presence is a daily grind that risks diluting what’s actually important.
NOT STOKED ON SOCIALS
“I’m so grateful that when I was a grom going through those teenage years, we didn’t have social media. And I feel for the young kids these days. They don’t even know each other, and they’re competing against each other so hard for who can release the next best content clip, feeling like you constantly have to curate your brand image. It’s so young. It blows me away. It’s like, Whoa—just be a kid and go surfing and enjoy it. And, you know, if you want to be on the tour, and have a long, great career, that will come; just take your time,” she says before adding a call to those at the wheel of responsibility. “I hope the parents of these kids can help guide them through it and not push it. Just let them understand that working on their craft is what’s most important. Whether it’s captured on film or not, it doesn’t matter.”
Stephanie Gilmore-esque perfection. Photo by: Andrew Christie
Stephanie fondly reflects on her life stripped back to simplicity: “I remember being at school, me and my friend Ashley Smith. You know, just the surf-rats. And we were [all] hairy legs, boardshorts, hair in a wet bun or ponytail all day because I never wanted to do anything [with it]. I just wanted to get to school and get it over with, so I could get home and go surfing. And thinking about moments where, you know, everyone was stressing about how they looked, what party they were going to go to, and which boy they wanted to be with. And then the big decision of what they were going to study in school. I just remember thinking, I’m so lucky that I feel comfortable in my own skin. And that might not be the best-looking skin, but I’ll take it because I know what my body can do,” she says, also noting how grateful she was to know beyond a doubt that professional surfing was the path she wanted to follow.
“It was time for something new to allow Stephanie an opportunity to grow“
Despite self-image not playing a lead role in guiding Stephanie’s intentions, in 2010, she arrived at a fork in the road where the future of her personal brand would inform an important decision. Her Rip Curl contract was up for renewal. A 10-year partnership and four world titles within a five-year deal had certainly given the surf company behemoth bang for its buck. Still, although fun for a teenager, perhaps the celebratory “Happy Gilmore” campaign had run its course. After an in-depth consultation with her sister-slash-manager, Whitney, the Gilmores decided it was time for something new to allow Stephanie an opportunity to grow into her next career phase. A choice not taken lightly. “[Rip Curl] supported me as a junior, and they saw the talent in me from a young age. I can’t thank them enough for [giving] me that support and wanting to ignite my mission into my world surfing career. But, yeah, it just sort of came to the point where Whitney, my sister, could see something more out there. And she wanted to see how this could pan out, and she wanted to help me blossom a bit more,” she says.
Quiksilver had released a women’s range (Quiksilver Women’s), a step up from the more teenaged Roxy girl, and sponsored females in the arts, fashion and more. Stephanie was enticed by what could be offered for her performance in the water and inspired by what possibilities lay on the land. “[It was] kind of like for the tomboy growing up into the badass sister of the Quiksilver guys,” Stephanie explains. Things felt right and key moments aligned that led Stephanie to take a leap of faith and sign a five-year deal with Quiksilver. “Sometimes in your life, you just know that this is the moment you need to change something. Shake it up. I was ready to blossom into something different,” she says, “and Rip Curl wasn’t ready to move with me on that mission.”
THAT ROXY VIDEO
The next sponsorship decision didn’t go quite as smoothly, and Stephanie’s desire to showcase a more grown-up version of herself sparked an online uproar. Roxy used their 2013 namesake event in Biarritz, France, to announce a new addition to their surf team. The short campaign clip was set on a sexily suggestive slow motion with an equally saucy backing track by Flume. It featured a “mysterious” tanned blonde sliding out of bed in just her underwear, sauntering to the shower, driving to the beach, slipping into a competition vest and paddling out into the lineup without catching a wave. There were plenty of close-up bum shots, but the facial identity was concealed. A hashtag posed the question: #whoamijustguess. And the internet melted. Articles were written, tweets tweeted, and petitions posted. On one side of the sandbank stood those relegating the advertisement as poor form, particularly from a surf brand choosing to sexualise surfing over showing the athlete in action. The argument continued that female surfing’s progress, still fragile from the misogynistic era profoundly documented in Girls Can’t Surf,1 had been set back and that the protagonist should’ve done better to portray a positive role model. On the other side of the sandbank stood Stephanie Gilmore in disbelief. For those who had watched her over the years, it wasn’t difficult to put the pieces of the puzzle together to conclude her as Roxy’s mysterious identity—the hair, posture, paddle style, and the board sponsor sticker. Stephanie, usually the one cruising the furthest away from controversy, watched wide-eyed as the backlash blazed. Roxy released the surfing component of the two-part clip shortly after, officially revealing Stephanie as the new team rider, but the flames of furore were too high to douse.
“We’ve just done it all wrong. This is going to be a media nightmare“
Stephanie expresses there was a definite intention to show a confident, more mature and body-positive side of herself than the self-proclaimed tomboy that took her well into her late teens. And although shot in a beautifully artistic way, she concludes it was the right idea but the wrong delivery. “Looking back now, I think about the stress and drama and all of the madness we were feeling in that time. Like, Oh, we’ve just done it all wrong. This is going to be a media nightmare. They’re all moments you learn from, and [these are the] things I try and encourage [for] girls in their careers and the photoshoots they choose to do. It’s like, as long as your intentions are right, if you feel comfortable in yourself that you want to take these photos, or you want to film this video or whatever it is, if you feel good about it, then do it. But it’s gotta be for the right reasons. It made me realise that if you believe in it, you just have to stick to your guns. It’s important to stand up for something you believe in,” she says.
Stephanie expresses this is probably the most controversial circumstance she’s been in, then counters with a laugh that it wasn’t even that controversial. She’s curated a relatively low-key existence to a high-profile A-lister life. No gossip mag front-page scandals, celebrity dating speculation or party pics taken out of context. Instead, she’s particular about what she says yes to. “It’s important to ask, ‘Does this align with my values? Is this authentic to my brand and what I believe?’ I work with my management team—my sister, and Nicky Craig, and Ben Crowe—[to] make sure I tick all boxes before I go ahead. I would say that I’ve probably said no to more things than not because I didn’t feel comfortable doing it,” she says.
IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE EIGHTS
It’s clear that Stephanie pays attention to instinct, perhaps never more so than during the 2022 WSL Finals Day. The universe threw her some signs, and she says it was all about eights. The WSL had initially planned to run on September 9, then reassessed the conditions announcing the eighth as a more favourable day. Stephanie jokes she was not complaining about that decision. Going for her eighth world title on September 8, wearing her “88” competition vest (representing her birth year), morally supported by her partner, Harry Henderson, from 88 Surfboards, and two cherry tomatoes even latched onto each other to form the shape of an eight in her salad. Plus, this year felt different, so she did things differently. “I texted Mum and Dad the night before and said, ‘Hey, I’m on first at 8 a.m. I think it’s 1 a.m. your time. Make sure you watch.’ Like, I never do that. Mum and Dad said afterwards, ‘You’d never text, Make sure you watch.’ That was weird,” she laughs. “I was like, This is gonna happen, so make sure you tune in. Usually, I’m like, Yeah, whatever.”
Stephanie explains it was like being on auto-pilot with the mission clear in her mind. And not only did she approach things differently, but she learnt from past mistakes. In 2021, she’d entered the Finals Day arena convinced not only that Carissa Moore had already won but that she deserved to win that world title. No coach, using old surfboards, Stephanie’s lack of strategy and targeted mindset showed, and she lost the first heat to Johanne Defay. Despite the 2022 World Title showdown being an equally almost impossible notion—start from fifth place, surf three heats against three other surfers, then match up against a fatigued-free Carissa Moore and win, all to snatch the coveted world title tally crown from Layne Beachley—there was a notable shift in Stephanie’s language. “My internal dialogue was hard on [the notion], You can do this. Let’s make it happen. And I wasn’t sure it was possible,” she quickly points out, “but I wasn’t focusing on that, either. I was like, I’m gonna focus on the things I can control.” Stephanie drew on the analogy “you only fall as far as your training” to inform her event preparation to enact how the Finals Day would look. Wake at 5 a.m., drink a smoothie, activate her brain and muscles, go for a quick free surf, then 30 minutes of intense exercise, 15 minutes recovery, repeat. This was the routine right up until the days leading to the event. That simulation of what the Finals Day could look like revealed something key to weave into her campaign strategy. “In one of my training sessions, I was super buggered, and I didn’t actually do the heat six and thought, If I want to win this, I’m gonna have to do it in five [heats] because I don’t think I’ve got the stamina to get six,” she says.
“I was really pissed off [at] the WSL for going ahead [with Pipeline]“
On Finals Day, Stephanie entered the event with nervous anticipation but felt centred. “The nerves where your legs feel like jelly, and your arms are heavy—it wasn’t like that,” she says. “I [was nervous]; nerves are great because it reminds you that you’re excited to be there. But I was very connected, [in that] flow-state everyone’s looking for.” Grit was another key ingredient Stephanie used to rub against her opponents. Earlier that year, she was far from okay with the WSL’s decision to run the Pipeline event, the first contest on the calendar and a monumental day in women’s surfing history, a day before Stephanie was due to exit COVID quarantine. “I was really pissed off [at] the WSL for going ahead [with Pipeline]. It set me up for the year to be a bit edgy. And [then] I just made the mid-year cut and just made the Finals cut. I was hanging on by a thread the whole year. I was just existing on tour at this point and [thought], What is this all for?” she says. “So, when I got to the finals it was like, Alright this is it. All or nothing. You have nothing to lose at this point.”
However, at risk of a 2021 carbon copy, Stephanie’s fairytale finish was almost derailed as early as Heat One. Not only did she frustratingly fall on several of her opening rides, but opponent Brisa Hennessy surfed crisply, pinning Stephanie to the ropes and requiring a 6.40 with 42 seconds to go. Stephanie explains her inner voice was touting, You’ve still got time. You made this mistake last year, don’t embarrass yourself, and she likens her next move to a “lioness moment”. Taking off, she kept feet to wax and drew Steph-esque lines scoring a heat-winning 6.83. “I never underestimated any of my opponents, but I had full confidence in myself. And was able to lean into it and appreciate the moment,” she says. From there, Stephanie removed that near-miss moment from her mindset and zoned in on the intention to drive harder and achieve greatness, with absolute clarity that this was her purpose. She challenged the unthinkable and rode seamlessly to claim her eighth world title. Noting it as “the best win of my career so far”, she sealed the moment with a “F–k yeah!” scream during the live broadcast and tears that streamed freely for the world to see.
Stephanie’s ‘F*ck yeah!’ moment. Photo @WSL
SO, WHAT NEXT?
Once the Steph-a-poloosa dancefloor celebrations died, Stephanie headed into the Canadian wilderness for a trip with fellow Yeti brand ambassadors Keith Malloy and Mark Healy. No mobile notifications, media mayhem, or talk of points and record-smashing. Just a lodge on Nootka Island (adjacent to Vancouver Island), cooking what you catch, tuning into sounds that don’t require a power point, surrounded by forests on land and kelp forests at sea, and with plenty of time to ponder what the past few months all meant. “I have this feeling after I’ve won each world title that there’s more to do,” she says. “Winning world titles is an incredible feeling, and it’s such a cool space to be in when the stars align and you get the trophy, and everyone’s celebrating you. You really do feel like a rockstar. But then you take off on a trip like that, out in the wilderness you start to think, Okay, what is it for? What use is this trophy? What can I do with it?” she says.
Being nurtured by nature is one of the best ways to reflect on what matters most, and Stephanie allowed herself a moment to realign. “Out in the wilderness, I think about the fact I need to be more proactive in environmental issues. I want to learn more about different topics,” she says, also confessing she’s had one foot in, one foot out on many causes that are important to her, simply because her focus has been to become the most successful surfer of all time. “When you’re an athlete, you sort of [have a] one-track mind that you forget about what else is going on. And it’s a very selfish world, but when you have success, you have the platform to be able to move into those topics. It’s important because you can’t be a competitive surfer forever,” she says.
“She still has goals to achieve before truly accepting the moniker of G.O.A.T.“
But Stephanie’s not ready to hang up the 88 vest just yet, confessing she still has goals to achieve before truly accepting the moniker of G.O.A.T. “I obviously want to win at Pipeline and would love to do better in Tahiti—both places I’m very uncomfortable at, and I need to get better. I have so much room for improvement,” she says. We ask if throwing herself into chunky waves comes from a place of desire or obligation, and she quickly confirms it’s desire. “You know, it’s good to finish up and have the trophy and all the accolades, but then to feel like I’ve got so much more to learn and give and evolve into, it’s like, Whoa, this is cool. I feel like I’ve unlocked even more potential. Imagine what I can achieve,” she says. “Yeah, it feels like there’s a lot more in the tank. Now that I’ve won my eighth world title, I feel freed up. Like, I can go into these missions unafraid of getting injured. I finally reached the milestone I wanted to,” she says.
We’ll never tire from seeing Stephanie in the water, whether it’s winning eight world titles or trimming along on a twinnie. So an uninhibited, unshackled Stephanie Gilmore going for greater heights? Yes, please.