In between winning her world title on Monday and making a slapstick – but potentially legitimate –  attempt to run the author over while he crossed the road at Sunset today, Steph Gilmore’s been a busy girl. Several hundred interviews, a half dozen parteés in her honour, and a hangover that would kill a lion, it’s all been, as Steph says, “a bit of a blur.”

But she’s also managed a few moments of reflection – one of which in the hammock in our backyard yesterday afternoon (she may have, technically however, just been asleep). She’s had a bit of time to dwell on what she’s achieved this year, and how’s she’s done it all so very differently to her first title.

1. Losing on the Gold Coast
That turned out to be pretty good for me. I had so much going on and I really didn’t take the time out to prepare myself for the first event. I was just rattled, and all the home town expectation got to me. So losing to Carissa was good because it fired me up for the next event at Bells and it got me back into my groove again I got down to Bells and I won.

2. The Long Break
After Bells we had a four-month break from the tour, and I spent a solid month in Indonesia just surfing perfect waves and hanging out with friends and just getting some quality surfing done. I got to know my equipment a little bit better, and I surfed some powerful waves before we headed off to France.

3. Brazil
Brazil was really good for me because when we got there I really wasn’t thinking much about the event at all. When I got there I was being the full tourist. I was checking out the Christ statue and I walked through a favela and I went to a samba dance. The contest was on the next day but I didn’t care. I went out to this traditional Brazilian samba night until one in the morning. It was in a favela and it was with all the locals, no tourists. I stuck out like a sore thumb, but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. It was like a rehearsal for Carnivale. It was such a once in a lifetime opportunity that I wasn’t even thinking about being in bed for my heat the next morning, I was thinking I’ve got to live it up right now because I may never return to Rio. That was pretty cool.

4. Machu Picchu
In Peru I went up to Machu Picchu. Right before the Peruvian event I didn’t surf for the entire week because I was on a mountain 10,000 feet in the sky. I got altitude sickness and was drinking coca tea, it was insane. Then I went straight to the Peruvian contest and I won. Doing those things kept me refreshed and interested, and focused on what I was trying to achieve at the end of the year… which was winning the world title.

5. Jan and Ron
Having my trainers, Jan and Ron Carlton coming to Hawaii was really important in the home run. Jan was such a significant figure for me last year winning the world title, and she’s just so great at what she does and the kind of psychological training we do is so fascinating. It really helps me keep perspective. What we do and how good a lifestyle we have, and that always helps when I’m out in a heat, losing, trying to win.

6. The Super Caddy
I think Matt Griggs being my caddy at Sunset really helped. Before the event I thought I’ll just get my friends to float out there and do it for me, but Matt was out there and he’s so good at what he does. He was never stressing to me about what scores I needed to get. He was just like, “Go out there and better your last wave.” It was good advice from him. It was only a small thing, but if you focused on them the whole thing becomes a process of stepping stones.

7. Racing Cars
After winning the title last year I’ve been meeting so many new friends in different places, from celebrities to people on the street. They might know I’m world surfing champ, but they don’t know anything about surfing. It’s such a miniscule industry on a world scale, and it’s cool getting to hang out with people from other walks of life. You kind of realise you can’t stress about the small things like losing a heat. I drove in a celebrity car race. Did I do that this year? Yeah, I did, it was just before Bells. I’d just gone absolutely shithouse on the Gold Coast and I’ve gone down to Melbourne the week before Bells, and the whole week before Bells I spent driving race cars around a race track. I was nowhere near the beach I was in the middle of the city driving race cars with famous sportsmen and women, TV stars, you name it. I didn’t think of the ocean, I didn’t think of Bells. I was hanging out with all these new people from different worlds and racing cars with them. It made me realise more there’s so much stuff to do out there, that you can’t be so single minded with your surfing.

8. Gene Simmons
I met Gene Simmons from Kiss. I went to an Ozzie Osborne concert. By the time I got to Bells I was so amped to surf. I think I was just amped to get  to Bells and see all my friends and tell them what I’d just done and they’d be so jealous of me. That was just the best thing ever. And I got to Bells and won. All that stuff made me realise it’s more about the journey.

The Curl team house, as it’s prone to do, has become downright communal.
Joining the half dozen Curl boys checking the surf from the balcony this morning were a handful of their mates – Ian Walsh, Mark Mathews, the Harrington twins, Bottle Thompson. There’s some collective froth. The swell has filled in overnight, and Pipe is a good eight foot this morning, and the swell is strong. It’s so strong in fact that Marky Mathews, Walshy and Curl photographic guru Ted Grambeau start contemplating a jaunt to another far flung Pacific Island to catch this swell.

The early surf cleans out the house. Hog leads the charge, closely followed by Owen, closely followed by Cathels, de Silva, Brady, Dunn and Ramey. Sorting the right one from the wrong one proves tough, as the swell is so strong it’s showing little respect for the reef. The heavier swell today has cut the crowd in half, but half of 100 is still 50. Owen Wright does his usual four hour morning surf, and runs late for his photo shoot with a red hot Hawaiian model, who’ll, today, be posing nude. The boys have been passing around a calendar with her in it, and, needless to say, are all off Owen.

Hoggy comes in, and he and Davey Cathels sit on the balcony and watch the sets at Pipe slowly building. It’s starting to look kinda evil. The two Narrabeen lads, a generation apart, talk about their morning surfs. Davey’s been putting in the hours out there, but – like 95 per cent of crew out there – is getting frustrated that he’s not getting waves. “Davey,” says Hog, offering some advice and probably not for the first time, “you just gotta put ya head down and paddle your arse off even if a guy inside you is looking. If you’re paddling hard and he pulls back, you’re on. If he goes, you hit the anchors hard. If you’re not paddling hard at ‘em you won’t get ‘em.” A couple of years back Davey might have laughed off advice from anyone, but the cheeky young pup he was once was has grown a bit older and wiser and he’s one guy who’s really made use of his time in Hawaii this year, surfing his arse off and really trying to push himself.

Mick Fanning doesn’t have his morning constitutional surf at Pipe this morning, cause he’s got business up the beach. The contest is on at Sunset, and the final will run today. It’s a heavy day for a few guys involved, Sunset being the final WQS event and all and guys’ surfing careers depend on it. Phil MacDonald is one guy who surfs through his heat no worries and requalifies for the Dream Tour. Later that evening Mick would join Phil for a few celebratory drinks up at Turtle Bay.

The WQS is a long distant memory for Mick, having qualified back in 2003 and not having to dabble with the qualifying tour ever since. But Sunset is a big scalp, and Mick’s still looking for his first Hawaiian win. By the time the quarters paddle out just before lunch, Sunset is big and perfect.

“Do you reckon I should ride a 7’0”?” Mick asks Pit Boss, Griggsy, just as a huge set bombs in from the west.
“I’ll take the 7’0”,” says Mick, “and take out me 7’3” for back-up.”

Parko is the heat before Mick, and their cars are parked next to each others’ in the Sunset car park, looking out over the lineup. Parko paddles back in after his heat and walks back to the car.

“Are they easy to get?” asks Mick.
“Getting ‘em’s easy,” replies Joel, “Getting ‘em on the head is the hard part.”

Mick gets through his quarter, but his 7’3” is a casualty, not of the peak but of the shorebreak. As Griggsy tries to bring two boards in through the shorey the 7’3” gets caught under a little tank of a wave and snaps clean. “Never even surfed it!” laughs Mick. He bombs out in the semi, needing only a 3.5. He’s not real happy about it, but is laughing again an hour later.

Meanwhile back up at Pipe the place is alive. The swell has filled right in, and the eight footers of the morning are now 10, 12 even. It’s really west, the wind isn’t too unkind, and there’s some bombs out there. It’s potentially epic, just a little wild. Owen’s back from the nude shoot and out there, with Davey, Ramey, and Pipe specialist Bruno Santos. Hog makes the biggest splash though, literally. He takes off on a First Reef tank that lets him in no further than the lip. It grabs him and throws him horizontally like a cricket ball. He bounces off the reef but comes up okay.

By dark it’s really on. The charts are saying 14 feet at 14 seconds. There’s plenty around, and the charts are saying 15 at 14 for tomorrow, so there’s more to come. Before Pancho and Taylor left this afternoon for their inter-island mission, Pancho said that when they got to their secret right this arvo it would be three foot. They got off the plane, drove out there, and three foot it was.

“It’ll only be three this afternoon, but eight in the morning.”

Stay tuned. //SEAN DOHERTY