Staring
down the barrel of the beginning of the 2012 season is such an exciting
feeling. It has been five months since our last event the US Open of Surfing and
I’ve had such a fun filled off-season. It’s the first big break I have had from
competing for a few years so I was looking forward to exploring new places and
learning something new. Looking back I have definitely covered some ground
travelling to New York, Barbados, Bali, The Mentawais, Fiji and Hawaii to name
a few destinations where I surfed, snowboarded, had photo shoots, checked out

some new sports and even turned 21.

My first
trip took me to New York; a giant city, 16,000 times bigger than my hometown, full
of so many fun things to do. For me New York is like everybody’s favourite search
engine. A city with everything and you can search for your own new adventures
every day. Being a sports fanatic, I was in my element watching my first live
American Football and Ice Hockey games whilst I was there. I got stuck into it

cheering like a mad woman, dressed in the teams jerseys.

I then
ventured to Barbados a small island in the Caribbean. It is an absolutely
beautiful spot; the water there is like surfing in a bath it is so warm and has
the most unique colouring to it, an amazing aqua blue. I lucked into a really
fun swell for my whole trip and surfed all corners of the island. It is ideal
to find waves that aren’t too crowded, so when you have time to explore when
you aren’t competing it is such a treat. One of my favourite things to do is to
search for waves with no one on them. It’s like finding your own secret jewel
and you can get wave after wave. Barbados definitely had some jewellery.

I also spent
a few weeks travelling through Indonesia on one of our Roxy team trips. It’s
always a blast hanging out and surfing with all the girls. I have such a dream
job; surf for the most part of the day, training and working on parts of your
surfing that need extra attention in the off season and getting video and
photos in all the latest Roxy gear for their upcoming campaigns. On the
mainland we rode elephants bareback, got around on scooters and Jet Ski’s,
launched off 15 metre rock jumps, released baby turtles back into the ocean and
journeyed out to the Mentawai islands to get really fun waves all in a few hard
weeks of work. It was another incredible adventure.

Happy Surfing
Sally Fitzgibbons, Professional Surfer
www.sallyfitzgibbons.com
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Check Out:

Sally Fitzgibbons Blog - The Challenges
Sally Fitzgibbons Blog - Preps for 2012 Season