Emma Perrier needs to overcome a funding barrier to compete at the 2024 World Surf League Longboard Tour

By Sarah Waters

When Emma Perrier was eight years old, she convinced her dad to enter her into her frst surfng competition, the Annual Evans Head Malibu Classic.

Fifteen years later, she has been selected as one of the top 24 women surfers, from across the world, to compete in the 2024 World Surf League (WSL) Longboard Tour.

Emma, 23, is still coming to terms with the news after only fnding out a few weeks ago that she had made the tour, which starts at Bells Beach, in Victoria, in less than a month on July 13.

“I had just arrived at work and was making myself a coffee, checking my emails as you normally do and I didn’t really believe it, but an email notifcation (from the WSL) came up saying I had been selected,” she said.

“It was a very surreal moment.”

Emma has been active in the local longboarding community since she was a young surfer.

She grew up in Brisbane but spent her weekends among the waves on her longboard at Evans Head, where her parents had a beach house.

Her surfng style was shaped by the ‘veterans of longboarding’ at Evans Head Malibu Club, who helped her to fne tune her ‘drop knee.’

Over the years she has become a familiar name at local surfng competitions along the coast, but she had never competed at a professional level - until four months ago.

In February, Emma decided to enter the 2024 Gold Coast Open WSL Longboard Qualifying Series event (for the Asia Pacifc region) at Burleigh Heads. She was ranked as the last seed out of nine competitors but managed to fnish in second place.

It wasn’t enough to gain her automatic entry into the WSL Longboard Tour, however.

The winner from each of the seven regional WSL qualifying events typically makes the tour.

But the woman who bet Emma in the qualifer (Tully White) had been pre-selected for this year’s tour as she was one of the top 10 competitors from last year’s event.

Emma said it was ‘very exciting’ when she fnally found out, via email, that she had made the WSL tour.

But it has only given her six weeks to prepare and scramble together the necessary funds to take part in the competition, which she estimates will cost about

“I work full time (as a data analyst) and my work has been super supportive, but it would take me years to save up what I need for the tour, and I don’t have much time.

“I don’t have any sponsors yet - even at the qualifer event I was the only competitor who didn’t have any sponsor stickers on their board.”

$30,000.

The tour will feature four international events, running from JulyOctober.

It will start at Bells Beach, in Australia, followed by an event at the ‘birthplace of longboarding’ Huntington Beach in California.

The location of the third event is still to be announced, but the championship will take place at famed surf spot El Salvador.

Emma said as exciting as it has been to make the tour, it has also been daunting when looking at the travel costs.

“You have to pay your way to every stop on the tour, there is no funding provided by the WSL or Surfng Australia.

Emma has started an online fundraising page in the hope it will allow her to participate in the opportunity of a lifetime.

“It’s all very new to me the self-promotion, but I’ve got to try, and that’s my goal for the next month to try and fnd some funds.

“This tour gives you the opportunity to surf waves that you might not ever be able to - and particularly by yourself.

“My goal is to win a world title and I’d love to make the Olympics, if they do decide to have longboarding in Los Angeles in 2028, but just been on a world tour is such an amazing learning curve.”

As an added confdence boost before the tour, Emma won the Open Women’s Final at the NSW Longboard State Titles at Port Stephens, two weeks ago. She is the vicepresident of the Evans Head Malibu Club and they have got right behind her to try and support her as much as possible.

In the past, Emma has helped to raise a huge amount of money for breast cancer research.

She started a popular surfng event known as ‘The Breast Comp Ever,’ a womenonly longboarding competition in Evans Head.

The competition has helped to raise more than $155,000 since it started in 2021.

To help Emma participate in the 2024 WSL Longboard Tour please google: EMMA PERRIER - WSL LONGBOARD TOUR FUNDRAISER and donate to her fundraising page: https://asf.org.au/ projects/emma-perrier/ emma-perrier-wsllongboard-tourfundraiser or scan the QR Code