Covid, sharks ... Wright rides the wave
‘‘At her worst, Wright was having up to six emotional breakdowns a day.’’
Two-time world champion Tyler Wright is having a coughing fit due to a standard lung infection. However, the rattling cough needs an explanation during the year of pandemic paranoia.
Hours earlier the sick Australian surfer made history to become the first woman to win amajor title event at Pipeline at Oahu in Hawaii. The Maui Pro was Wright’s first event in two years after she contracted influenza in Africa. This was followed by chronic fatigue and ensuing emotional breakdowns.
Yet the triumphant comeback last week almost never took place.
On December 9 a fatal shark attack involving a recreational surfer near the Maui Pro site at Honolulu Bay shut down the women’s event. Three days later a Covid outbreak among World Surf League organisers, including chief executive Erik Logan, brought the men’s competition to a standstill. The ensuing chaos was dragging the sport down into awide-eyed, open panic, and Hawaiian government officials were reluctant to sanction the resumption of the troubleplagued events.
The stasis ended on December 17. Officials allowed the men’s and women’s events to resume,
with Wright and her fellow surfers joining the men at Pipeline break for the first time.
The sport of surfing was morphing into guerilla warfare; competitors and organisers hiding out for extended periods in lockdown, self-contained small groups living in isolation, waiting for hit-and-run raids on the beach and always moving here and there trying to outrun the pandemic. It’s the only way the revamped competition will survive the upcoming trek through Hawaii, California, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and French Polynesia.
How did Wright keep herself
together? She replies with the mantra that is often repeated: ‘‘This is my job.’’
For Wright, this approach is driving her comeback. It’s just a job, albeit a great one. But just a job.
For an agonising 14 months, Wright was barely able to get out of bed and admits she has no recollection of her 25th birthday. At her worst, the surfer told 60 Minutes, she was having up to six emotional breakdowns a day.
She won her first tour event at the age of 14 in 2008 and won two world titles in 2016 and 2017, but she had been brought so low.
Wright says the fatal shark attack at Honolulu Bay near the women’s event deeply upset the competitors. She said the WSL chief executive and four staffers contracting Covid-19 rattled them even more. However, the time away from surfing gave her the resilience to deal with any setback.
‘‘This week [with the fatal shark attack and Covid shutdown] was incredibly emotional, traumatic, stressful week all right around,’’ she says. ‘‘I have been through enough things now to know how to take care of my mental health, how to stay healthy, even though, obviously I got sick, but not with Covid, just normal sick.’’
Wright spent a lot of time getting her mind and body ready for this event. However, she also brought something else to her comeback: attitude and joy.
Earlier in the event, before it was switched from Maui to Pipeline, she scored a perfect score of 10 against fellow Australian Stephanie Gilmore in a quarterfinal.
Uncharacteristically, she celebrated midway through the wave after exiting a barrel ride with a joyous soul arch, the classic longboard surfing pose, performed by arching the back while riding awave, demonstrating nonchalance and casual confidence, and she added her own stamp by sticking out her tongue in the direction of the judges. Then she resumed her engagement with the fastmoving wave, executing some arcing turns on the board rails before popping the fins out the back of the wave in another perfect section. The end of this ride was followed by further celebration with a bring-it call to arms.
‘‘There’s a thing in women’s sports where you always have to be grateful, and I am, but for me that was a pure joy wave. Rarely before this point inmy career have I celebrated on the wave.
‘‘I’ve never celebrated twice, that’s for sure. I think it’s an important part of being in sport. I wish I saw that more when I was kid.’’
Tyler Wright is back at work fulltime.