It even sparked one fan to call for a public holiday in Culburra Beach, Tyler’s home town.

There were outpourings of enormous pride as a local conquered the world.

And that sense of pride was never more evident than the chairman of the Bernie Regan Sporting Trust Paul Goddard, whose organisation supported Tyler when she was a “young up and coming grom”.

“Tyler’s achievement is fantastic,” Mr Goddard said.

“The trust supported both Tyler and her older brother Owen. If I remember rightly I think they were among our grant recipients.”

The trust distributes grants to school age athletes who have excelled in their chosen sports to help with training, coaching, travel, accommodation and also purchasing new equipment to ensure every success can be achieved.

Over the years the trust has given away more than $360,000.

“It is just such a wonderful achievement for Tyler and her whole family,” Mr Goddard said.

“It is all down to Tyler’s skill, determination and dedication but also the ongoing support of her family.

“From when Tyler appeared at the sportstar awards as a youngster you could tell she was going to be something special.

“We all knew she had huge potential in the sport and now for her to be world champion, I believe the area’s first, is fantastic.

“And to be world champ in such a high profile sport as surfing is incredible.”

He said he hopes her older brother Owen can also recover from a recent head injury and return to the world tour.

The trust also hosted the annual Shoalhaven Sportstar of the Year awards, which Tyler was the junior winner in 2007-08 and 08-09, following on from Owen who was just the second athlete to win both the junior (2004-05) and senior (2007-08) awards.

The brother and sister won the double in 07-08.

Mr Goddard also reflected on the deaths recently of sports personalities Norman May and Max Walker, who were both great supporters of the trust.

“Both Norman and Max made appearances in town for the trust which helped us raise money which in the end we were able to put towards furthering many local young athlete’s careers, just like Tyler,” he said.

“So I suppose you could say with Tyler’s success, the three will be linked together for ever.

“Norman made a number of appearances for the trust and of course he did a lot of fundraising for the Olympic movement which the trust partnered him in.

“Max was special guest at the trust’s 10th anniversary. Both, along with John Rankin and the South Coast Register played influential roles in us, as a trust, being able to support the many young athletes we have been able to.”