Surfer's young age hides a hard edge

Her surfing family have sharpened Tyler Wright's skills, writes Damien Murphy.

TYLER Wright completed year 10 last month and became Australia's best paid 16-year-old.

Receiving more than $20,000 for winning at Hawaii's hard-breaking Sunset Beach after completing her exams, she has just signed a five-year contract with surfing goods manufacturer Rip Curl.

Her father, Ron Wright, a plumber, has quit work to act as chaperone for her first year on the world professional surfing competition circuit.

''I'm already earning more than Dad could in a year, so why not go for it?'' she said, tuning up at Freshwater for today's start of the eight-day Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals World Junior Championships at North Narrabeen.

It will be her last junior competition before joining the big time full-time.

Wright racked up such an impressive collection of wins last year in New Zealand, Bali and Hawaii, she was invited to join the Association of Professional Surfing women's world circuit.

The youngest woman to compete at senior level, she debuts at the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast next month.

But Wright will have a job ahead of her this week at North Narrabeen.

She heads into the deciding event of the world junior champions as favourite after her several wins last year.

Rip Curl spotted Wright when she was nine and turning heads in the water on the NSW South Coast.

The Victorian West Coast-based company started giving her boards, wetsuits and clothes but she caught other people's attention in 2008 when she became the youngest surfer to win an ASP women's world tour contest, the Beachley Classic at Manly.

Competing as a wildcard, she was just 14 years old.

Wright whipped Stephanie Gilmore twice on the way to the final before dispensing with Brazilian Silvana Lima for the $30,000 first prize.

Some considered the win a fluke but last year Wright drew a line in the sand with her three decisive wins.

Her powerful, stuck-to-the board style has made her a stand-out.

Like fellow Australian and four-time world champion Gilmore, Wright surfs with a harder-edged attack than is usually seen in women's events, in which competitors tend to flow with the wave rather than ride all over it.

The two women are close. Gilmore has tutored Wright on the many surfing safaris the pair have taken together.

''I grew up surfing along the NSW South Coast,'' Wright said. ''The waves are hard-breaking and fast and I had my dad, an older sister and three brothers pushing me all the time. So I guess I learned to ride hard.''

Her parents, Rob and Fiona, raised five children at Culburra but two years ago bought a couple of hectares opposite Boulder Beach, south of Lennox Head on the NSW north coast. It is a break her father has been surfing since the early 1970s.

The Wrights are proof that the family that surfs together earns together.

Tyler's brother Owen, 21, was the ASP men's rookie of the year last year.

It is the first time that a brother and sister have competed on the world professional surfing circuit together.

While Rob Wright is checking flights and accommodation in France, Portugal, Brazil and Hawaii, the family is looking forward to competitions in which Tyler and Owen will be surfing together in the same country.

''I'd like to say Owen will be looking after Tyler,'' Ron Wright said yesterday. ''But boys being what they are, I don't think that will happen. She'll probably end up looking after him.''

For her own part, the biggest change in her life may not be winning big surf titles but getting her learner's licence. ''I can't wait to get a car,'' she said. ''I can afford it.''

Today 18 women and 48 men from Africa, Australasia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, North America and South America begin competition at North Narrabeen.

Wright, who will complete years 11 and 12 via distance education, is unsure what lies ahead, but already knows enough to be generous towards her rivals.

''There's nobody particularly that I'm keeping an eye on,'' she said. ''They're all pretty good.''

Maybe a diplomatic career beckons.