SURF SCENE with Andy McKinnon

WORLD tour veteran and Australian Team Leader Sally Fitzgibbons has thrown down the gauntlet to represent Australia in the 2020 Olympics with an emphatic victory to take gold at the World ISA Games in Japan.

Athletes from both ISA and WSL are allowed to compete for selection in the 2020 Surfing Olympics and Fitzgibbons took the bull by the horns to smash the women's final with an outstanding scoreline of 18.64 out of 20.

Her two highest scores were a 9.47 and 9.17.

Having come so close to winning a women's world surf league title on a couple of occasions, Sally claimed her second World Surfing Games, previously won in 2009. It was arguably her greatest win to date and elevated the Australian Team into number two behind host Country Japan winning their first ever World Teams, and a sign of the changing times in surfing domination.

"It is the biggest buzz to bring the Gold back to Australia!” said Fitzgibbons.

"It's really empowering to be a part of so many generations of women's surfing here in this event. Team Australia has built great momentum heading towards Tokyo 2020. I know that whoever represents Australia are going to do us proud.”

It's Australia's best result in a long time and a great result for the Gold Coast-based North Stradbroke Island coaching duo, Bede Durbidge (surfing elite program manager) and fellow high performance coach Tim McDonald.

The highest placed in Australian men's was Dextar Muskens who had to battle through six repechage rounds after a first round loss to finish in equal 21st out of a field of 128.

Muskens will focus next on the 2019 WSL World Junior title. However, a combination of Aussie girl power in Holly Wawn and Philippa Anderson - who only just missed out on the women's final - helped push Australia into second.

More than 40 countries competed at Japan including a number of landlocked countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Hungary. It's a fine wire act for WSL and ISA competitors seeking Olympic selection. Allowances were made to fit into the WSL Euro WCT/WQS events providing the opportunity to compete in Japan. Sally was a noticeable example.

Only two men and two women will be selected for the Australian team to compete in the first ever Surfing Olympics in Japan in 2020. WSL seeding appears to take precedence but this is where it gets sticky that the selection is also based on ISA results. One thing's for sure, despite a Kelly Slater wave pool being built in Japan in time for 2020, Japan hosts and the ISA are sticking to their guns to hold the historic event in the ocean, resisting the urge to go to the wave pool.

In light of the recent WSL Surf Ranch event, the popularity of a world competition has mixed feelings from the viewers who prefer the unpredictably of what the ocean serves up compared to a mechanical, perfect wave that is repetitious.I dare say if you ran a poll comparing both, ocean waves would win over the wave pool.