The surf gods frowned on Layne Beachley as the seven-times world surfing champion finished her competitive career in bizarre fashion in her own event on Saturday.

After winning a second-round heat featuring fellow Australians Jessi Miley-Dyer and Amee Donohoe, 37-year-old Beachley (0.50) recorded what she thought was probably the lowest score of her stellar 20-year professional career in her third-round loss to to Rebecca Woods (7.00).

Woods was one of three Australians, along with defending two-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and 2005 world title holder Chelsea Hedges, to advance to the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic at Sydney’s Dee Why Beach.

Organisers were hoping to complete the US$100,000 event on Sunday.

Beachley simply couldn’t find any good waves in the one to 1.5-metre conditions in her 30-minute heat.

The one wave she did catch the Sydney surfer squeezed very little out of and she quickly fell off and then waited in vain for the final 16 minutes.

Describing it as “a demoralising way to go out”, a gracious and candid Beachley said all she could do was laugh at her unbecoming exit from the sport she had graced so well.

“To finish my career after winning seven world titles with a 0.50 in my last heat is pretty comical, but very devastating at the same time,” Beachley told reporters.

“Even if I was a millionaire, I couldn’t afford to buy a wave out there. I was lost at sea.

“At the end of the day, I’ve had a fairytale career and I guess you can’t have a fairytale career with a fairytale ending.”

Beachley said the manner of her exit had merely confirmed it was time for her to retire rather than decide to continue and look for a happier ending.

“This actually more than anything, that heat right there, was the nail in my coffin, it really slammed it down for me,” Beachley said.

“It made my realise “yup, this certainly is time for me to go’.”

Woods admitted it had been difficult to surf against Beachley under the circumstances, but was delighted to claim her scalp while lavishing praise on her fellow NSW surfer.

“It’s always daunting coming up against Layne, but I’m happy to get one on her before the end of her career, because she’s definitely got a few on me”, Woods told reporters.

“Layne has had an amazing career … all of us from Australia coming up owe a lot to Layne.”

Gilmore (8.60) also struggled in a low scoring heat against Wright (8.45), with the teenager falling agonisingly close to repeating her shock elimination of the world champion.

Wright caught a small wave in the final 20 seconds of their heat, but came up just short of the score she needed.

“I don’t think I watched, I just put my head down,” Gilmore said of Wright’s last-gasp effort.

“I was definitely disappointed with my performance. The waves were just all over the place and it was just constantly changing and it was difficult.”

Gilmore will take on Hawaii’s Coco Ho (14.50), who eliminated Australian Sally Fitzgibbons (12.90) in the quarter-finals.

The other heats in the last eight bring together Woods and Hawaii’s Melanie Bartels, Hedges and Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich and the Brazilian duo of Silvana Lima and Jacqueline Silva.

Hedges, who won the other second round heat, clinched her spot in the last eight with a (13.15) to (12.25) third-round victory over New Zealander Paige Hareb.

© AAP 2012

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