Wildcard won’t catch Gilmore out

NO one knows better than Stephanie Gilmore just how dangerous a wildcard can be.

She was one herself when she won the Roxy Pro at Snapper Rocks as a 17-year-old schoolgirl and a year ago she had her world title tilt knocked off course by one at the US Open in California.

The Australian surf champion says she is now using the lessons learned a year ago to guide her quest for a seventh world crown.

Gilmore lost the world title to compatriot Tyler Wright by a single heat in 2017 and the close call has made her determined not to repeat the mistakes of her past in 2018 – including being done over by a wildcard at the US Open.

“I realised that last year when I lost the world title by just one heat that it could have been the heat I lost to the wildcard (French surfer Maud Le Car) here at Huntington,” Gilmore said from the US.

“I feel like last year I kept making the same mistakes over and over again.

“But this year I seem to have got past them. I’m getting good results and holding it together. This was the event where it all went a little off track last year and I’m alert to it.”

Gilmore says she is campaigning smarter this year with three event wins proof she has learned from past mistakes.

“I feel like I am more open to these events where I might not have done so well in the past and go into them knowing I just have to get the job done,” she said.

When competition begins at the US Open, Gilmore will take on defending champion Sage Erickson and American 15-year-old wildcard Kirra Pinkerton in her opening heat.