TWELVE months after claiming the Women’s Fiji Pro with a burst eardrum, Sally Fitzgibbons returns determined to replicate her winning ways.

Speaking exclusively to The Saturday Telegraph, Fitzgibbons opened up on the most courageous ride of her stellar career.

The defending Fiji champion admitted feeling nervous heading into her rematch with the fearsome Cloudbreak swell, the most dangerous on the women’s tour.

“I just remember a big crack after the wave hit the side of my face,” Fitzgibbons reflected on her heroic surge to last year’s Fiji Pro crown.

“I came up to the surface and my equilibrium was all out.

“I was trying to grab my board and I just didn’t have that spatial awareness.

“I knew something was up from there.”

At this point you could have forgiven Fitzgibbon for giving up.

The champion Aussie was also faced with concerned comments like, ‘you can’t possibly go back out’ and ‘it’s too dangerous with a burst eardrum’.

Fitzgibbons, though, is made of sterner stuff and was determined to push on.

“I think I just had to pull all that Aussie spirit, energy from my family and friends and all the people supporting me,” she said.

“It was just like this incredible wave that got me back on the board and eventually on to win that event.

“It was also just this feeling of, ‘no, it can’t be over now.

“I’ve come this far and surfed so well and I just wanted to give myself that shot that I deserved to give myself.”

Fitzgibbons has endured a slow start to the 2016 World Surf League season to be placed in fifth position on the standings with 22,950 points.

Despite her mixed results, the Gerroa-born talent is primed for her third consecutive appearance at the Fiji Women’s Pro.

“It has been a bit of a yoyo year so far, but hopefully I can come to Fiji and just draw on that confidence from the previous two years,” she said.

“I feel like everything is there and I just need all planets to align to take my surfing to the next level.”

The Fiji Women’s Pro starts on May 29 and runs through to June 3.