With her win at the Fiji Women's Pro, Gerroa's Sally Fitzgibbons has stormed back into the reckoning for her first ASP World Women's surfing title as she moves into the third spot on the 2015 Jeep leader board.
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Propelled by round three heroics that saw her post huge scores in spite of a perforated eardrum, Fitzgibbons powered through heavy conditions at Cloudbreak. She earned four, near-perfect scores to break back into the top five.
Finals day resulted in a pretty serious overhaul of the top 10, signalling a shift in women's surfing that has been long-anticipated but still somewhat surprising.
The top ranks of women's surfing has, for the most part, been dominated by the same four surfers - Carissa Moore (HAW), Tyler Wright (AUS),Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) and Fitzgibbons - often referred to as the "Fabulous Four."
Of those, only Fitzgibbons found herself in the later rounds of the event.
Gilmore, the reigning World Champion, did not compete in Fiji, having to miss a second contest on account of a knee injury. But unexpectedly, Moore and Wright, No. 1 and No. 3 respectively on the leader board, found themselves upset early on the final day.
The first to fall was Moore, who was defeated by Lakey Peterson (USA) in round 4. Peterson went on to break through the quarters for the first time since Rio last season, defeating Tatiana Weston-Webb (HAW) in the quarters.
While Peterson is ranked higher than Weston-Webb, the rookie was one of the favourites to win it all having notched two near-perfect scores on her way to the Quarters.
Fitzgibbons scored 18.56 to down Bianca Buitendag (SAF) 14.4 in the final after earlier accounting for Lake Peterson 16.83 to 3.33 in the semi-final and Laura Enever 17.06 to 11.34 in the quarters.
The tour will now move on to the US Open at Huntington Beach, California, commencing on July 27.
