It must have come as a shock to the diminutive eight-year-old Ruby Griffiths as she paddled out in her heat to find the competitor in the yellow singlet next to her was a former world junior surfing champion and the third-ranked woman on the ASP world surfing tour .
Competing in Cronulla Sharks Boardriders Club’s seventh annual “Nugget “ memorial contest at North Cronulla beach on Saturday, world tour surfer Sally Fitzgibbons had come to meet — and compete — with her new club’s members since joining two months ago.
Fitzgibbons was the youngest world surfing tour qualifier in history and she won the world junior title as a 14-year-old in an under 21 years contest. Fitzgibbons competed in athletics before she started her professional surfing career; she was a national champion winning middle distance runner.
Formed 35 years ago, Cronulla Sharks Boardriders already had a culture where woman surfers were welcome and, in fact, had female competition going back 15 years with Lyndsey Noyce ranked 30th place on the world tour.
Fitzgibbons didn’t have it all her own way in her first heat with Australian open woman’s finalist Paris Whittaker and Cronulla woman’s champion Rachel Campbell pushing her to a first-up win.
The “Nugget” contest was won by Jared Hickel, 16, a fellow ”goofy footer” like the contest’s namesake and the $500 prize money from the “Toolstore” and Pace Cranes went towards his trip to Hawaii where he will spend two weeks on the North Shore with NSW surf coach Blake Johnstone.
Fitzgibbons won the woman’s in a day Ruby won’t forget and Jared also claimed the 16-years category with Jay Brown winning the 13-years division.
North Cronulla, on Australia Day, will be the venue for the “Be the influence Boardriders battle” where clubs from every Australian state make their claim to being the country’s best.
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