Seven-time world champion Layne Beachley will call time on her glittering career at the end of the 2008 season.
The 36-year-old officially announced her retirement from the sport she has dominated for much of the past decade during her home event in Manly, the Beachley Classic.
Beachley, who is currently rated No.3 in the ASP Women's World Tour ratings, said the time was right for her to hang up the togs after winning a record 29 Tour victories
"I feel like now is a really good time, even though I am in my career-best form, because I am an all-or-nothing kind of girl and to achieve the goals I set for myself in surfing, I have to give it my all and I'm not," Beachley said.
"I have to be honest with myself - I'm not committing 100 percent time and energy and effort and focus into winning world titles. It doesn't mean that I can't win world titles, but my priorities are beginning to shift and my focus and my passion in business and charity work and my ambassador roles is beginning to have more appeal to me than competing for a living."
"I feel like I've achieved everything that I've wanted to and that it is good to go out while I'm still in top form."
"I feel like I'm surfing the best I have in my whole career. Nothing has really changed on tour except for my attitude. It's my lack of commitment to winning. I base my choices off my experiences and my experience has told me that you have to be 100 percent focused and also love what you're doing."
"Even though I love what I do, I'm beginning to love what I'm doing out of the water more. My passion for competitive surfing has been diluted, and to achieve success and to win world titles, you can't afford for it to be diluted too much. So now I've had to make a decision and I'm convinced I'm doing the right thing."
Beachley said that although she was stepping away from a full-time professional surfing career, she would still remain in the sport in some capacity, either through her clothing line, her charity work or in the media.
Asked to nominate a highlight of her career, Beachley struggled to find just one answer.
"There's been millions of highlights," she said. "Finding myself in the most random places on Earth, donning a bikini with a board under my arm and just staring out into the ocean in disbelief that I get to do that for a living."
"One of the greatest achievements was winning my first event back in 1993 and winning my first ASP Women's World Title back in 1998. Those were both enormous achievements for me."
Photograph Copyright : ASP Robertson/Covered Image