Wave Rider
Running in the pouring rain sounds blissful when you hear it described by Sally Fitzgibbons. “There was no-one around and giant puddles everywhere,” says the 30-year-old pro surfer, smiling at the recent memory. “I felt like a land-sea vehicle, so I just ran down the beach and straight into the water in my shoes and clothes, and I started swimming along the shoreline. Then I came back up and ran along the beach again. Nature is one of my core values. There’s something about it that just makes the day feel calm and like it’s all going to be OK, no matter what’s going on.”
What’s going on for Sally when we speak over Zoom looks like this: she’s on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu, recuperating from the first contest of the revived WSL Championship Tour (it was postponed for most of 2020 thanks to the pandemic). After a local shark attack, the final rounds changed location at the last minute, so suddenly Sally and her peers found themselves making history. For the first time, a women’s tour event was held at Pipeline on O’ahu’s famous North Shore – one of
