Wylie fundraises for world tour dream

JAN Juc local and surfer Tully Wylie is on a mission to qualify for the World Tour in 2026 and is calling on the community to help him get there.

For the past three years, Wylie has been creating short films that document his travels, and raffling off a range of prizes and donations to help ease the financial pressure of competing internationally.

This year, his annual fundraising event is returning, taking place at Bird Rock this Saturday (August 9) where he will debut his new film and speak with James Miles and Cahill Bell-Warren from the Lipped Podcast.

“This is the third year I’ve done this and basically, just with the amount of travelling I’m doing for competing, it’s really hard to afford it,” he said.

Wylie said it costs about $60,000 a year to compete at an elite level, with the funds raised at Saturday’s event helping to make it all possible.

“It goes towards my flights, event entries, coaching, training – travel costs is the biggest one, our flights for the year are ridiculously expensive because we’re literally doing laps of the world.”

Wylie said he doesn’t have a specific fundraising goal, but is grateful for any support people are willing give.

“It’s been a bit of a challenging thing for me to accept doing, because I don’t really love asking for money,” he said.

“I’ve had so many close friends recommend me to do something like this and the community really gets around it.”

For people unable to make it to the fundraising event, tax deductible donations can be made online by visiting asf.org.au