Same again please for world champ Wright

It ain't broke, so why should world surfing champion Tyler Wright change anything about her approach when it comes to defending her crown in 2017?

Wright charged to her maiden WSL title last year with one of the most dominant seasons any professional surfer has put together.

The Lennox Heads product won five of 10 events on last year's tour and finished a beaten finalist in two more events.

Tour No.2 Courtney Conlogue finished just under 12,000 points behind Wright as the 22-year-old simply blew her competition out of the water.

Wright will begin her title defence on the Gold Coast this week with the Roxy Pro competition window opening at Snapper Rocks from Tuesday.

Far from being phased by having a target on her back as the world champion, Wright is sticking to her winning formula as she aims to get back into competition mode.

"The essentials are still the same," Wright told AAP.

"Everything that I need to work on and have to work on I've been working on.

"All the prep in the off-season - I've probably got more done than I did in the previous year so I'm pretty excited about that.

"Essentially nothing's really changed except how everyone else views it."

Wright may have been untouchable in 2016 but the women's field is one of the most competitive the tour has seen.

Multiple world champions Carissa Moore and Stephanie Gilmore will be keen to get back to the top while Conlogue, Sally Fitzgibbons and Hawaiian pair Malia Manuel and Tatiana Weston-Webb loom as serious contenders.

Wright says that competition is exciting, not intimidating.

"People ask who's the one person to look out for but you can't really slack off anywhere," she said.

"The field's strong and that's what we've pushing for for a long time now."