Over time, Tyler Wright has learned to get comfortable in her own skin. At 30 years old, the Australian surfer has had her fair share of ups and downs, but preparing to compete in her first Games at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, she’s fit, healthy… and trying something different.

The two-time world champion has worked with her wetsuit sponsor to create a suit we’ve never seen before. Traditionally, wetsuits are designed symmetrically, with the suit arms and legs at the same length; Wright has gone for something unique.

“I call it the ‘half and half’ suit, where it’s like one half long and one half short. So, this is a side that I’ll drag a lot of. It also helps with protection because this is the side you fall on,” she told Olympics.com.

There has been no big performance testing done on the suit, Wright just feels it might alleviate the annoyance of taking on water in her wetsuit when she would like to avoid it, tucked into the monstrous barrels of the Teahupo’o wave.

“So when I was thinking about this and the specificity of this wave and the frustrations that I feel when I usually compete and how much drag I get, whether I wear a spring suit or half a spring suit on this arm, the water actually drags quite a lot,” she said.

“It’s more of an experimental thing, but honestly my brain gets so frustrated with catching more water than I need to. And it also changes your pace of how you slow down and speed up as well if you’ve got half the side of your wetsuit filled up with water, you’re actually carrying a lot more weight.”