Surf world reels as Rip Curl dumps world champ Tyler Wright ahead of Bells Beach tour opener

The decision not to renew Tyler Wright’s contract is a continuation of almost thirty years of bad luck for the South Coast native.

Only three weeks after pocketing one-and-a-half mill from the sale of a redundant beach shack, Tyler Wright, the two-time world surfing champ, Olympian and LGBTQ2S+ activist who narrowly escaped execution during the Abu Dhabi Pro last year, has been dumped by long-time sponsor Rip Curl. 

The decision not to renew Tyler Wright’s contract is a continuation of almost thirty years of bad luck for the South Coast native, who only just returned to the water a couple of weeks ago following a seven-month layoff due to injury.

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You’ll remember Tyler telling the WSL’s Dave Prodan she suffered “emotional and psychological abuse: from daddy Rob, and described her upbringing as “drastic and extreme.”

In the same interview, Tyler also, and correctly in my opinion, bemoaned the “white, male” surf industry.

And, talking to ESPN, Tyler revealed she was, for a very long time, “under-oxygenated and semi-suffocating” much of the time due to too-small airways.

It’s a diff Rip Curl in 2026 to the one that signed Tyler in 2007, even from two years ago when the company, under the command of its first-ever female CEO, Brooke Farris, joined a line of progressive Australian brands pivoting into the transwomen market, a move I regarded then as brave and correct and a reflection of surfing’s inherent inclusiveness, although I was quickly disabused of that notion.

Some mainstream media outlets in Australia subsequently claimed it was this pivot that contributed at least partly, to Rip Curl’s parent company Kathmandu posting an $83 million loss. 

Anyway, not a lot of cash left in the ol kitty, and especially after shovelling millions at greatest-ever Stephanie Gilmore in an eight-year deal that will take Gilmore almost into her fifties.

But no lack of motivation apparent with Tyler’s pre-tour warm-up videos showing a committed athlete hunting world title number three.

Questions for BTL habitués:

Is this the final nail in the cash for sticker market that supported surfers for the last forty years? And, as a CEO, how would you frame, say, a 600k salary on the balance sheet? Is the branding of that surfer wearing your trinkets or rags justification or must there be a legit bounce in sales etc?