“Well-muscled” J-Bay Pro champ charged with breaching apprehended violence order 

"I'm loud and I'm straight up and I get a lot of attention."

The women’s professional surfing tour was hollowed out in 2005 entertainment-wise at least, when the Gold Coast’s Trudy Todd exited the stage immediately after winning the Rip Curl Pro Malibu. 

“I’m loud and I’m straight up and I get a lot of attention,” Todd had told a magazine reporter shortly before the win, announcing the Malibu Pro would be her last event. “That has a lot to do with being a male-driven industry, and me always wanting to be the sort of girl that doesn’t take shit.”

In 2000, Todd was fined $1200 after shoving fellow competitor Samantha Cornish’s head in the sand, after Cornish had eliminated her in a quarter-final of the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper. The same year Todd broke her back but was given an injury wildcard in 2001.

Previously, Todd had promised to “go Pamela Anderson all the way” and buy large breast implants if she ever won the world title. Matt Warshaw subsequently noted “She didn’t win the title; the implants were medium-large.”

With his trademark finesse, Warshaw described Todd as “petite but well-muscled” and “an aggressive regularfooter, noted for her quick, sharp turns, and not overly concerned with surfing subtleties.” 

That refusal to take a backward step, as they say, has followed Todd well past retirement. Nearly two decades after her last heat, the 1999 Triple Crown winner found herself in a Sydney police cell.

Todd, now 52, appeared in the online bail division on Friday charged with contravening an apprehended domestic violence order, accused of breaching a condition barring contact with a protected person.

The long-time Tweed Coast resident applied for bail through Legal Aid solicitor Bethany Burns before Judge Daniel Covington. “She’s staying in Newcastle to care for her aunt, who has recently had a heart attack,” Burns said of Todd’s present circumstances. “She has her own residence… it’s in the process of being sold.”

Little else was said about the circumstances of the ADVO before Covington granted bail, with a condition not to contact the protected person specified in the order. “I’m primarily concerned about victim protection,” Covington said. “She has a limited history, one prior conviction, there are conditions that can be put in place.”

Covington initially adjourned the matter to August 26, before being told that was the date Todd’s property would go to auction. It was instead pushed to September 2 at Downing Centre Local Court.

Todd began surfing at 15 and won six state amateur titles before topping the Australian Championship Circuit in 1993, 1994 and 1996. She also won Billabong Pro events at Snapper Rocks, J-Bay and Maui in the late-1990s, at a time when she was rated third in the world.