Stephanie Gilmore rides waves of performance art

Stephanie Gilmore views surfing as performance art. But she’s meant to be a professional athlete.

Australian surfer Stephanie Gilmore in Honolulu yesterday as she prepares to try to match Layne Beachley’s seven world titles. Picture: Leilani Gryde

Stephanie Gilmore views surfing as performance art. The sun, a spotlight; the ocean, a stage. The riding of a wave is her concert; her guitar solo, her pirouette to the world. She feels a deep affinity with musicians and dancers.

Which makes her existence a little complicated. She’s meant to be a professional athlete. (She’s unsure if the hat fits.) Success and failure on the World Surf League tour is determined by black-and-white judging; this makes her uncomfortab­le.

That’s a four-point-ride, they say. That’s an eight. She thinks: says who? The four has held more meaning. What about the self-expressio­n? The emotion? Are they not worth more than a backhand hack? Why does everything have to be judged?

Next week in the dream setting of Honolua Bay on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Gilmore can match Layne Beachley’s benchmark of seven world titles. There are few more successful or fascin­ating figures in Australian sport.

Case in point: during the final of this year’s contest at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, Gilmore turned her back on professionalism and risked defeat by catching a terrible wave — because she saw dolphins on it. What an absurd move in a heat that might cost her the world championship. But what a beautiful rebellion. You can all get stuffed … I’m going with the dolphins.

Right before our interview, Gilmor­e is leaning against a wall marked DO NOT LEAN AGAINST THE WALL. Where’s a camera when you need it?

She remembers being in her mid-teens. A blonde-haired little surf rat watching the Roxy Pro at her home break of Snapper Rocks at the bottom of the Gold Coast. Let me out there, she’s telling ­herself. Now! I can beat all these ­people. Now! The exuberance of youth. The blooming optimism.

In Year 12 at Kingscliff High School, she’s given the chance to compete. She wins the event and goes back to school the next day.

Now she’s 30 years of age. A six-time world champion.

The schoolgirl is now surfing’s stateswoman. And a tide of contradictions. She’s extremely motiv­ated. She has too much of a gypsy’s heart to be a permanently competitive machine. But she’s too good at competing to turn her back on it. The 13-year-old Gilmor­e’s been right all along. When she’s in the mood, she can routinely beat all these people.

“Best day ever. Are you ­kidding me?” Gilmore says while recalling her first tour victory as a 17-year-old board rider having a decent excuse to skip high school.

“I remember the day before it, sitting with my friends at recess at school. It’s the start of Year 12. I’ve got a wildcard to go in the trials. You have to qualify for the main draw through the trials. I’m sitting with my friends at school and saying: ‘Yeah! I’m in the trials! Imagin­e if I win the whole contest! How cool will that be! The prize money! All that stuff!’

“The event starts and I’m thinking: ‘OK, every heat you make is another day off school — and a little bit more cash. Keep it rolling. See how far you can go. Imagine if you get a whole week off school. That’ll be amazing!’ ”

She wins the trials. Wins the entire contest. “I have really fond memories from a couple of years before that,” she says. “I remember going down after school to watch them at Snapper. I remember sitting there thinking: ‘I can do that. Hundred per cent. Give me a board right now and I’ll paddle out and beat them. I can totally win this right now.’

“ I remember being really confident, borderline cocky. I’m not saying it out loud at the time, but I just remember having this feeling that, some day, I’m going to do this. So when the opportunity comes to do it for real in 2005, I feel so at home. It’s been years since I’ve already won it in my head. Performing in front of ­people, performing in front of my heroes — I’ve already seen how it’s going to happen.”