Kate Skarratt

Imagine a career that takes you to the world's most exotic locations, uncovering one pristine beach after another. For leading Aussie surfer Kate Skarratt, this life in paradise comes with a lot of hard work and perseverance.

 

Kate burst onto the women's professional surfing scene in 1999, winning her first Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour (WCT) event in Tahiti. Since then, Kate has earned victories at the Margaret River Pro and Nias Open World Qualifier Series events, and achieved a top-ten world ranking.

 

If that's not enough, Kate has also surfed her way onto the silver screen, appearing in the motion picture Blue Crush (for which she earned a "Best Stunt" nomination at the Taurus World Stunt Awards), and in Sheryl Crow's Soak up the Sun music video.

 

One of only a handful of women ever to surf the infamous "Pipeline" on the north shore of Oahu, Kate stands at the forefront of the women's extreme surfing movement, employing some of the same radical techniques used by the world's elite male surfers.

 

A graduate of Wollongong University, Kate was a co-founder of International Women's Surfing. She recently joined fellow-Aussie surfing champ Chelsea Georgeson in hosting a free women's surf skills and water safety program, the Roxy Surf Jam, on the central coast of NSW. The program helped over 50 girls improve their confidence in the open ocean environment.

 

After finishing 5th in the Billabong Pro in Tahiti and missing out on a quarter final berth in the Roxy Pro France, October, Kate is now waxing up for the Roxy Pro Hawaii in November as she battles for a place in next year's elite World Championship Tour.

 

A big advocate of protein for recovery, Kate has some words of inspiration for budding athletes: "Follow your heart and dreams do come true - you just have to believe in them and yourself and don't forget to have lots of fun on the way to achieving them!"