When Sally Fitzgibbons welcomes her former South Coast surfing buddy Tyler Wright’s emergence as a genuine title challenger, she speaks in terms of friendship rather than rivalry.
At 21, Fitzgibbons - the Gerroa glamour girl with the million-dollar smile and real marketable worth - is already part of the established order at world No2.
And she came so very close to holding the ASP holy grail last year.
This year, Wright is rated a real threat to Fitzgibbons, current champion Carissa Moore and four-time winner Stephanie Gilmore on tour, having taken out the rookie of the year award and risen to fourth in the rankings.
But more than anything, Fitzgibbons is just glad to have her childhood friend around, after Wright moved from nearby Culburra Beach to Lennox Head two years ago.
‘‘Tyler’s an amazing talent,’’ Fitzgibbons said. ‘‘I was a little disappointed when she abandoned me and I lost my surfing buddy when I’m back home.
‘‘On tour in her rookie year, [Wright] showed she’s going to be hard to stop, so it’s going to be a tough battle. But I’m super-excited to have her around all the time, because we’re great friends and we’ll have a blast travelling the world. Put it this way, if I’m not winning, I’m going to be cheering pretty hard for her.’’
On Monday, Wright and Fitzgibbons will start a global journey, starting with the newly created Australian Open world tour qualifying event at Manly.
Wright, 17, is fearless and unflappable when it comes to her amazing rise in the sport’s profile. She’s taking it all in her stride.
‘‘It’s exciting,’’ Wright said. ‘‘I don’t really place any [expectations] on myself, I’m just working hard on what I’m doing.
‘‘I’m just training and enjoying myself. Hopefully, I can be consistent on the tour this year, because Carissa and Sal showed last year how important being consistent is.’’
Tyler’s brother Owen, who is now ranked No3 on the men’s tour, has pulled out of the Australian Open competition, citing an illness related to dehydration.
The trio spent countless hours on boards during family trips travelling along the Australian east coast.
Fitzgibbons won three events last year, but is now on the comeback trail from a fractured wrist.
She’s desperate to make a bold start to the new season in a bid to take the world title away from the Hawaiian Moore.
A vocal critic of the shortened seven-event women’s world series this year, Fitzgibbons wants to work on some new moves to take her to the top, when the tour starts at the Roxy Pro at Snapper Rocks later this month.
‘‘I’m definitely building on previous years,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ve been working on the more progressive stuff and manoeuvres to improve and step up to the next level.’’
As her international surfing profile continues to rise, Fitzgibbons also continues to impress as a celebrity and an athlete.
Last year, she completed a surf survival training course, which included a free diving course in Hawaii, where she went to a depth of 33 metres on a single breath, which she held for four minutes 40 seconds.
It was a few days after that experience that she fell onto the reef while surfing at Cloudbreak and fractured her wrist.
However, Fitzgibbons recovered enough to make it onto the tennis court for a charity match at the Australian Open.
With racquet in hand she mixed it with international stars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, as well as Australian household names like AFL player Gary Ablett.
After all the training, travel and mixing with the world’s best sportspeople, Fitzgibbons is back to business when the Australian Open starts on Monday.
Earlier this week, she told the Mercury it would be a training run to be sure she was prepared for the start of the world tour after last year’s injury setback.
Fitzgibbons remains confident she can break through and win the world crown despite the emergence of a band of younger talent, including Wright.
‘‘I’ve gained a lot of experience from those last three years on tour,’’ she said.
‘‘I feel a lot more comfortable about the tour, the locations [of events] and the waves.
‘‘We’re all great friends and they’re a great bunch of girls, but when you hit the water, you definitely do whatever it takes to come out on top.
‘‘I like to stay pretty relaxed, but when I start doing my warm-up routine, it flicks a switch and I know I have to get out there and do everything I can.’'
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