Rising surf star Leihani Zoric wins Indigenous title at Bells Beach

Leihani Zoric presses his fingertips against the top of his surfboard as he waits for the perfect wave, his heart pounding and the salt water stinging his lips.

“Come on Leihani, I know you can do this,” the 13-year-old boy whispers to himself. “You are good enough, you can do anything in the world. I believe in you.”

Row. Stop. Row. To wait. Zoric repeats his mantra, asking for his positive self-affirmation to become reality.

“Sometimes, when there is so much pressure, you don’t win, you have a few minutes left and no wave comes, I’m talking to myself,” he tells this imprint.

“I use it a lot, even if I’m doing well in the heat, I’ll keep pushing myself to get better with every wave.”

On Sunday, Zoric cruised to victory at the Australian Indigenous Surfing Championships on windswept Bells Beach, winning the junior girls and open women’s events.

This was the second time in a row that the Bryon Bay prodigy won both titles.

Zoric is a striking figure in and out of the water. The 13-year-old wears her bright pink unicorn beanie as she warms up in the sand while waiting for the competition to begin.

Halfway through Sunday’s women’s final, Zoric couldn’t catch a wave. Finally the perfect one arrives and the 13 year old boy takes action. He drives down her face, picking up speed before ripping off her lip, sending a curtain of spray into the sky.

The tide is rising and Zoric feeds off its energy, producing impressive snaps and smashes and scoring eights and nines.

At only 13 years old, he is preparing an impressive resume. A proud Yued Yorga woman from Bundjalung Nation has followed in the footsteps of world champion Molly Picklum, winning multiple state championships and championships, including Surfing Australia’s prestigious rising star award in 2025.

It all makes sense when you consider his lineage. He comes from a family of young surfers. His mother, Kirsty, is a Western Australian state champion.

When Zoric was just two days old, his father and grandfather placed the tiny newborn on a surfboard at Broken Head Beach in northern NSW.

“The waves weren’t big, so the conditions were perfect for me and I had nothing else to do,” laughs Zoric.

“They got me down onto this little surf mat they got for me, and then my dad was holding me, my mom was filming, and then my dad was standing next to my dad… I had the biggest smile on my face.”

For Zoric, surfing feels like home; The moment she steps into the ocean, she feels a deep connection with the country and her family’s culture. His chosen individual totem is a dolphin, known as kwelena in the Noongar-Yued language.

“Whenever I’m outside, I see dolphins, and I really feel connected through my culture when I see the animals, and I love getting in the water because I can really feel the connection with Mother Nature,” she says.

Zoric’s determination to follow his surfing dreams requires a tight schedule.

He aims to do two to four hours of schoolwork a night and also balance surfing with a gym workout. He did acrobatic training and karate, and also made time for breathing exercises, stretching days, and mindfulness workshops to help with high-stress scenarios.

There’s also enough room in his schedule to keep up with the latest television shows and movies. He loves crime movies and action-packed movies, but he still has a special place in his heart for cartoons. Lilo and Stitch and cult-classic Surfing one of your favourites.

His durability was tested in January 2025 when he suffered a third-degree tear of the medial collateral ligament in his knee; this was the most serious injury of his career. It took him two months to get back in the water, but the teenager said he came back “bigger, better and stronger than ever.”

He speaks openly and candidly about the importance of mental strength and endurance, with the maturity of someone much older and wiser than himself.

She regularly uses positive self-affirmation before and during competitions; It’s something he’s working on.

“I have a mental coach, but I also feel like I’ve naturally taught myself to believe in myself,” she says.

“I think because I started competing early and lost quite a few times, it taught me that I need to have some self-confidence and self-confidence so I can achieve my goals and perform well.”

In January this year, the teenager traveled to Western Australia for a few weeks to surf at North Point Beach, a surf spot famous for its heavy waves and fast-breaking barrels.

While paddling, Zoric hit a series of high waves of 12 to 15 meters, keeping him underwater.

“It was the whole time… I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die, I’m going to die,’ and I swear it was like the third wave from the end and I think I passed out,” she says. “My brain was like, ‘Oh my God, get me out of here, I’m going to drown.’”

Zoric managed to return to shore and found himself crying to his mother.

“I said, ‘Mom, I almost drowned,’ and my sister was with me and said, ‘Leihani, what are you doing? Go back there,'” she laughs as she tells the story.

The terrifying experience forced the teenager to enroll in surf apnea workshops in Bryon Bay; Breathwork training adapted from freediving to help surfers recover from intense underwater pressures and manage panic during extinction.

Zoric took two one-hour workshops a week and now feels much more confident in case something like this happens again.

The young girl is inspired by her surfing idols: Carissa Moore, the first Olympic gold medalist in women’s shortboarding, and Erin Brooks, runner-up at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.

Zoric has earned a prestigious place on the Surfing Australia Olympic track program and has his sights set on a world tour in 2028, heading to the LA Olympics and then to Brisbane in 2032.

“I want to win an Olympic gold medal and a few world titles would be nice too,” he laughs.

Her mother, Kirsty, admires Zoric’s achievements but is more proud of her daughter’s kind and resilient personality.

“I’m so proud of him and it’s great to be a great surfer, but most importantly, being a good person comes first,” he said.

“And I think he carries himself well in terms of being humble and caring about others.”

with Justin McManus

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