Earlier this year, World Surfaris and Sally Fitzgibbons teamed up to promote Sally’s new app “All Australian Beach Body”. To enter, you had to sign up to Sally’s new app. The promotional campaign drew many entries. Maybe the prize being an all-expenses paid including airfares holiday for 2 at the fabulous Hudhuranfushi Resort had something to do with it. The campaign ran for several months and the winner was drawn in March 2018.
The winner was Valentina Mayer. Valentina is from a small town near Vienna, Austria. Yes, you are reading that correctly – Austria. Not Australia. But wait, there’s more.
Valentina was in Australia in 2015 for a year and travelled quite extensively up and down the East Coast. She spent some of her time in Sydney, specifically at Manly. During her time there, Sally ran a surf event to promote Women in Surfing. Sal’s book “Live Like Sally” was available for sale at the event. Valentina bought a copy, had it autographed by Sally AND had her picture taken with Sal. She had the photo on her phone when she re-met Sal in the Maldives this week. How’s that for a small world?
Valentina brought her sister Josefine with her. But they nearly didn’t make their flight to the Maldives. They showed up super early to the airport and were trying to get an early check in, when one of the airline staff noticed that their passports had just fallen into the “less than 6 months validity” window. The girls rushed to the Austrian embassy and within an hour, had been issued with emergency passports with enough validity to be able to board the plane. How about that for European efficiency!
Sal, her social media buddy Carly, Valentina and Josephine all got on brilliantly. The surf was great, the food was excellent, and the fun was enormous. Next year, Sally will be hosting her very own retreat at Hudhuranfushi Resort. The retreat will include 7 days of surfing, with professional advice from Sally. Yoga which will be led by the Hudhuranfushi yoga program, as well as exercise and nutritional advice from Sally. If you are interested in joining Sally on her annual retreat please register your interest with World Surfaris as soon as possible, space is limited.