ASP Women’s Rookie Dimity Stoyle is having a good year. You’d think if you were unsponsored and without a coach life would be difficult, but this chick is still winning heats. In challenging conditions at the Fiji Pro, she took home 3rd place defeating World Champion Carissa Moore in the quarter finals. Dimity’s not afraid to get dusty in the shaping bay and has just finished another board. As the only girl on the world tour riding for JS, a shaper who boasts Parko as one of his best team riders, it’s safe to say Dimity knows about surfing.
Tracks sat down with Dimity ahead of Swatch Women’s Pro Trestles.
Surfline comments on the Women’s Fiji Pro?
We all got pretty slammed by Surfline after the Fiji Pro; they released some bad articles about us. What I don’t think they understand is we [the current womens world tour] have never had the chance to practice at a wave like that. This is just my first year on tour but I know they haven’t had Fiji or events in Hawaii for so long. Even the qualifying series is held in a bunch of 2ft beach breaks and everyone just expected us to know how to surf it.
Surfing Cloudbreak out of contests?
Even if we were freesurfing at Cloudbreak, there would be 50 other guys out there and I wouldn’t get a wave anyway. If there are no guys in the water you can slowly warm up and take off where you want.
The wave itself?
Cloudbreak is the most difficult wave I’ve ever surfed. I’ve spoken to so many people about it and even those guys who’ve charged it before say it’s one of the most difficult waves to surf. The webcast front angle definitely didn’t look as big as it did from the side. When I watched it after even I thought the waves didn’t look huge, but when I remember back to some of those drops I took…I think all the girls did really well out there and we’re definitely going to get better the more experience we get.
Your board breakdown for Fiji?
I actually borrowed a board for the big day, the biggest I had with me was a 6’0” and I just didn’t feel comfortable on it. I borrowed a 6’4” Mayhem from Steph’s caddy; her husband was one of the lifeguards at the event and he caddied for me, giving me tips on the break. The wave is so powerful and the wind creates a lot of chop on the face, you need a pin tail just to be able to hold in.
That Quarter Final with Carissa?
Andy King and I talked about it after and we thought that Carissa pretty much had a meltdown in that heat. She had so many people with her telling her what to do and where to sit; in the end she completely lost it. All through the event in Fiji I was just thinking about everything. I was figuring out strategies on my own. Before certain heats, like the one against Carissa, I thought about how I was going to do things to get scored and it worked! But I can’t give you all my secrets…
You don’t have a coach?
It’s not so much a choice; I think it just happened that way because I haven’t had a major sponsor that provides a coach. The majority of girls on tour travel with a coach and constantly have them by their side to tell them everything. I like to figure stuff out on my own. When I’m away at events I want to be able to think for myself and keep things simple, focus on getting those two good waves.
Sponsorship?
I’ve stressed about sponsorship so much over the last two years, it’s just been tiring! When I made the tour this year I was so excited! I’ve just stopped thinking about it and I’ve been having the best year! I’m not worried about it anymore because I’m getting paid to do the tour events. If sponsorship comes then that would be an awesome bonus to help pay for travel, but I’m happy, I’m getting paid to surf.
Female surfers getting paid for Playboy?
I’m really not into the whole Playboy thing. I just don’t think female surfers need to do that. I fully respect all the girls who have done photo shoots with STAB and ESPN, the girls are really beautiful and if they have the body then why not flaunt it! They are just working and getting paid. Sponsors want that. I think we should be celebrating how surfing makes women beautiful. It’s such a great healthy lifestyle!
Uploading daily?
We are definitely caught between a rock and a hard place. For most of the girls it’s their job to upload photos and respond to emails, always be on their phones. But when we were all in Fiji and staying on the same island at the same resort, I joked that we wouldn’t have seen each other if we didn’t have to go to the restaurant for Wi-Fi! If the Internet had been in our rooms we would have stayed there! I can’t help but think 10 years ago everyone would have been sitting around a campfire talking.
Surfers giving something back?
Surfing is one of the most natural things you can do, and we get to travel to amazing locations to do it. We definitely have a huge opportunity to give back to communities we surf in. We’ve started talking with Jessie Miley Dyer about something all of the top 17 girls can do together at locations we visit.
Shaping your own boards?
I seriously love shaping! It’s so much fun! I was actually really itching to get back into the bay as soon as I got home after Mexico. I’ve just hand shaped a new board; I copied the outline from one of my JS boards for small waves and I’ve got it over in America. I’m so excited to ride it! The first time you take your own hand shaped board into the surf and get that first wave is the best feeling ever! I’ve hand shaped about five boards now, mostly fun boards. This time I wanted to shape something I’ve actually been riding in competitions.
Does understanding how shaping works create advantages over the other girls?
I don’t get it, there’s some girls in the contests that honestly don’t know what a concave is. It’s so important to know how it all works. Shaping boards and riding all different styles from single fins to alaias has helped my wave knowledge so much – you always have to read the wave and surf it in the right part on those boards. If you watch Steph surfing she has the most incredible wave knowledge. She just always seems to find the barrel! She’ll be over at a beach break in New Zealand and just find a tube and come out. The ability to read waves well is definitely a quality of a world champion.
The new Tour?
The new ASP has been really good, there is so much support for women’s surfing and I think they are really focused on growing it as a sport. The same crew all travel to the same events, so the staff are all on tour with us. I think it’s all heading in the right direction.
When you’ve grown up on the Sunshine Coast there’s no shortage of waves, or boards to choose from to ride the ever changing ocean. Contest jerseys may have replaced alaia sessions for the moment, but no buzzer or 30 minute heat appears to change the abosulte stoke Dimity has for surfing, and life.
