Sally Fitzgibbons during last year’s O’Neill Women’s World Cup at Sunset Beach. The event no longer exists.

Have you seen the waves for the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic this week? It’s been pumping!

Dee Why Point on Sydney’s Northern Beaches was cranking for the first days of competition and the girls have been having a proper dig, committing to the conditions and coming in with snapped boards.

If you haven’t checked it out at beachleyclassic.com, you should.

Women’s surfing is in a funny state right now. On one hand, we have the hands-down most exciting crop of young female surfers ever. They’re surfing at a level way beyond girls just a few years older, and the fact most of ‘em are whip smart and look great in their bikinis sure doesn’t hurt. Yet despite some great sponsorship opportunities (and the movie Nike 6.0 has made that will redefine the bar by which female surfing is measured), they’re still being overlooked.
Sally Fitzgibbons just won the Subaru Pro TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival in Taranaki, New Zealand, to give her back-to-back wins after Bells. Sally’s as fantastic a postergirl for the new crew as you could hope to find. A gifted surfer, she’s also funny, humble, charges waves like the one above, and looks like this:
 

Yet where was the exposure for her follow-up win after Bells? There are only seven events on the women’s World Tour this year. Rip Curl no longer runs a Search event for the girls, and there are no events, at all, in Hawaii. It’s kinda heavy.
It seems a massive shame that while companies are happy to sponsor invidivual athletes, they’re unwilling to put up the money to hold an event. Clearly, they don’t see a good enough return on the investment. The chicks are ripping, but why isn’t anyone watching?