Stephanie Gilmore has revealed the gruelling training schedule that has spurred her to become far and away the greatest female surfer of her generation.
In an interview with Good Weekend, the six-time world champion explains how working with trainer Nam Baldwin, whom she met in 2008 through Mick Fanning, has conditioned her for the rigours of travel and competition. 
The million-dollar-a-year Queenslander's work with Baldwin should have her in top shape to kick off the pro surfing year in two weeks at the Roxy Pro in Coolangatta, 200 metres from where she grew up. The day starts at 6am with surf before she hits the gym with Baldwin, whose early lessons to Gilmore were centred on breath hold training. She does 20 minutes of wing chun kung fu, followed by hill sprints and flat sprints.
"Nam will ride a bike beside me at 25km/h for 120 metres," Gilmore, 28, says. "If I can keep up, then I know I can surf a wave from start to finish at the same energy level the entire time."
Gilmore does squats, before squats with weights, then unbalanced squats, where she stands on a bosu ball (a half sphere, with the round half on the bottom and flat surface on top). She will then balance on the bosu ball while Baldwin throws tennis balls at her head.
"I'll have to either catch them or dodge them or clap three times in between each throw. The idea is to teach you clarity under pressure," she explains.
Next, Gilmore hops on a paddling, stroking for a minute at a time, the last 10 seconds of which she "absolutely flogs it". Afterwards, she does jackknife push-ups (push-ups with your feet propped up above the level of your head). Gilmore does up to three sets of 10, often in an altitude chamber.
Then they hit the pool, where Gilmore swims laps, the first third of which is freestyle, the second third underwater and the last third freestyle again. When she reaches the point where her heart rate is through the roof, Baldwin has her get out of the pool and stand on one leg while he again throws tennis balls at her. She ends the session with another surf.
Such a regimen requires plenty of desire, something former world champion and fellow Australian Layne Beachley suggests Gilmore possesses in droves. "When she won her first world title, she told me she wanted to win 10," Beachley says. "She has an enormous amount of ambition. I call her the Smiling Assassin."