Still the one. Photo: Pat Nolan//World Surf League
Even moments after winning her historic eighth world title, Steph Gilmore admitted she had mixed feelings about climbing from fifth place to World Champion over the course of five heats at Trestles.
“I’m still thinking about the mistakes I made in my first heat,” she told The Inertia’s Will Sileo that day. “But it’s incredible, I feel like I just proved that it’s possible, to come all the way from the bottom and take home the win. There’s a bit of mixed feelings though, especially with Carissa having such a stellar year.”
Almost five months later, with the 2023 tour ready to kick off, she’s still talking about having mixed feelings. In a short interview aired on the ABC Sport Daily Podcast, the WSL’s two-year-old Finals Day format dominated the conversation. On one hand, she says coming into the day as the fifth and final seed at Trestles freed her of inhibitions, presumably fueling an objectively dominant performance. Her first two heats of the day were won by less than a full point combined (over Brisa Hennessy and Tatiana Weston-Webb). Her next three heats (against Johanne Defay and Carissa Moore) weren’t nearly as close, and Gilmore averaged a 15.24 heat total on the day compared to 12.52 average heat score from the rest of the field combined. But she’s still not used to the winner-take-all format that arguably wiped away five-time champion Carissa Moore’s incredible 2022 campaign.
“A big part of me still thinks the world champion should be crowned over all the different conditions. Surfing is about being able to compete in all different kinds of waves and being successful all through the year,” she told ABC Sport.
But on the flip side of the coin, she admits the immensity of the day at Trestles gave her a “real sense of what sport is in those grand final moments.”
“It’s all on the line and I got to experience that in the water. And for me, personally, I got to experience the good side of it where I came out at the end with the trophy. So I’ve obviously fallen in love with the new format now.”
Ironically, Gilmore almost missed the cut line at the mid-year point of the 2022 season after she withdrew from Pipeline and took an equal ninth at Sunset to start the year. She called it a “good reality check.”
“It definitely made me kick into gear and say ‘Hey if you really want this then you have to commit to the mission and not have one foot in and one foot out.’ For me, it was one of the toughest years mentally because I just really doubted myself so much.”
You can listen to the full conversation with Steph Gilmore here.
