Sally Fitzgibbons still waiting to book date with destiny

If there is a surf god it's fair to say he's been fairly unkind to Sally Fitzgibbons.

The three-time world tour runner-up admits to battling some mental demons after another tilt at an elusive world crown fell short in Hawaii last month.

Entering the Maui Pro within reach of tour leader and eventual world champion Stephanie Gilmore, a quarter-final exit saw Fitzgibbons slip to fourth - her lowest finish on the tour in four years.

The result left her riding an emotional rollercoaster in the following week.

"You're carrying a lot of emotional baggage through the year and when you fall short and don't get that result it's hard to control that emotion," she said.

"There's always those thoughts: 'how many times', 'maybe I can't get there' but I think all that irrational thinking is in that first week. The week after when you're reflecting you try and look at the positives. It was a fantastic year and I think above all, I have that goal to win the world title, but I always have the goal to improve my surfing and become a stronger athlete. I saw that I'd done that.

"In a sport with so many uncontrollables I think you've just got to be patient and hope that all the planets align and it's my year in 2015."

Fitzgibbons remains one of Australia's most popular athletes evidenced by the hundreds - mostly young girls - who lined up at Dymocks Wollongong for a signed copy of her new book Live Like Sally on Thursday. The book contains the exercise, style and dietary secrets that have powered her still young career, and some of the lessons she's learned along the way.

"I just thought I had some cool bits to share and I've come across some amazing things and had some good adventures I could share," she said.

The new book is part of a sporting brand quickly becoming a juggernaut but Fitzgibbons said meeting her youngest fans kept her grounded.

"It always blows me away to hear someone say 'you've inspired me' or 'you're a role model'," she said.

"I just try to show by my actions what I believe in and what I think is a really happy true life to live. To see that next generation makes you look back and remember that age and how exciting it is. I think the sport of women's surfing has definitely blossomed these last few years so to be at the forefront of that new generation feels pretty special."

While she's put off the autobiography for now - perhaps until she has those world titles to add - it's sure to contain a chapter on this year's Sydney to Hobart yacht race which she aims to complete on Anthony Bell's supermaxi Perpetual Loyal.

"I'll probably be a koala bear around the mast for some of it but it's going to be really cool to experience an ocean sport from a different perspective," she said.