Sophie McCulloch shines light on the rehab rollercoaster she has ridden since qualifying for the Championship Tour.
Sophie McCulloch’s climb into the elite ranks of competitive surfing has had more ups and downs than a North Shore swell chart.
After reaching the dizzying heights of qualifying for the Championship Tour (CT) at the end of 2022, she plummeted almost immediately through the lows of two career-threatening injuries. The most recent one – a fractured vertebrae in a heavy wipeout at notorious West Australian wave The Box in May – was life-threatening.
All of this in her first two years on tour.
“I’ve realised that I’m not invincible. But I keep getting injured and I keep being stronger for it,” the Sunshine Coast surfer tells Tracks.
Sophie has never been more determined to get back on a surfing high. Photo: Ryan Miller.Blistering start to devastating setbacks
Sophie, 26, is the first to admit she’s a fiercely determined competitor. She announced that much to the world in December 2022, when she fought through virtually impossible circumstances to qualify for the CT.
The five-foot-three pocket rocket had been coached by former pro, Grant Thomas, since she was a kid. She spent six years competing on the gruelling Qualifying Series and Challenger Series, honing a raw, powerful style and learning to send buckets of spray you’d expect from taller or heavier athletes. In 2022, she attacked Haleiwa’s shifty walls with gusto and emerged from deep in the rankings of the Challenger Series at the last event in December. She had to beat an impressive field, including five-time World Champion, Carissa Moore, to take the crown. Nothing but a win would have been enough to qualify for the CT for her first time.
Undeterred by the weight of the occasion, Sophie knew the mission and executed. The beach erupted as she was chaired up the beach with best friend India Robinson ...
