Tyler Wright reveals life post-skull expansion surgery and myriad back, hip and pelvis issues ahead of Bells Beach Pro 

"I’ve felt like I’m closer to wrapping up than keeping my career going…Mentally, you do ask yourself, ’How much more can I put my body through?"

The two-time world surfing champ Tyler Wright, the gal with the heaviest layback in the game and whose struggles with mental and physical health issues have long been documented, has revealed the depth of her woes in a candid interview with the Fairfax Press.

With five days to go before the World Surf League opens its Championship Tour, which has been dormant for seven months, with the Kathmandu Pro Bells Beach, the former Rip Curl marquee surfer says she wondered if, after eighteen years at the top, the game was was finally over.

“So yeah, there’s definitely been times where I did sit down and ask myself this summer, ‘Am I done?’ I’ve been injured so many times in the last couple of years. Mentally, it takes its toll…It’s probably the most serious I’ve been about those questions, because competing and still chasing the tour around the world is something that I don’t want to pressure myself into.

“If it works, it works. And when it doesn’t … obviously in the last couple of years I’ve felt like I’m closer to wrapping up than keeping my career going…Mentally, you do ask yourself, ’How much more can I put my body through? Is this really a great idea to keep going and pushing myself?”

Wright, who is thirty-two, told Fairfax that even a lil spin in the whip was impossible.

“Sitting in the car for 10 minutes – that was a nightmare.”

For the past four months, Wright has been working with the noted neuro-orthopaedic specialist Brett Jarosz, the man she credits with getting her back on her feet after that wild “African flu” in 2018 that scratched Tyler and her bro Owen, then the world number 11, from the J-Bay event.

“I love learning about the brain, the body, the mechanics and foundational aspects of the body,” Wright said of working with Jarosz. “I’m intrigued about how my surfing will go with this very different build-up.

“And I know I still love not only riding waves, but competing. Competing is still the funnest shit you can do to me. You can do everything right and still lose your heat, do everything wrong and somehow win. That’s absolutely asinine, and it’s so funny to me.”

“That’s part of the spark that keeps me going – I still really enjoy the absolute chaos of surfing. But there have been a lot of doubts and fears with it for the last few years.”