Tyler is Wright as rain when it comes to 2018
WORLD champion Tyler Wright is “good to go” after eight weeks out of the water and two intensive weeks of rehabilitation on a knee injury which almost ended her tilt for a second world crown.
Wright, fresh from winning the Aussie boardriders event she contested with brother Mikey and Culburra club mates at Newcastle, will contest her first major women’s event since securing the world crown last December when she lines up in this week’s Newcastle Surfest event.
But missing from the event will be brother Owen who has been confined to the sand after sustaining a nasty cut requiring stitches in his cheek surfing cyclonic swell in Queensland.
Wright, who ruptured a ligament in her knee last August, has likened the Newcastle tournament to a rugby league trial match with her surfing, more than the eventual result, what is most important to her.
“It’s just like a trial game. It’s all about helping me get ready,” Wright said from Newcastle.
“I’ve just been training and surfing. I had two weeks in the US for rehabilitation and it’s all good. “I still have to rehab it but it’s all good. It’s going amazing.”
Wright said her long break from surfing was to give her knee a much-needed break after she opted to strap on a brace and surf with the injury to keep alive her 2017 title tilt.
It was a decision which saw Wright become the first woman since Stephanie Gilmore in 2010 to defend the women’s world surfing crown.