Leihani Zoric presses her fingertips to the top of her surfboard, heart pounding and saltwater stinging her lips as she waits for the perfect wave.
“C’mon Leihani, I know you can do this,” the 13-year-old whispers to herself. “You’re good enough, you can do anything in the world. I believe in you.”
Paddle. Stop. Paddle. Wait. Zoric repeats her mantra, willing her positive-self affirmation to become reality.
“Sometimes, when there’s heaps of pressure, you’re not winning, there’s a couple of minutes left and no waves are coming, I talk to myself,” she tells this masthead.
“I do use that quite a bit, even when I’m doing well in the heat, I’ll still use it to keep pushing myself to get better and better each wave.”
On Sunday, Zoric triumphed at the Australian Indigenous Surfing Titles, winning the junior girls and the open women’s divisions at wind-whipped Bells Beach.
It was the second consecutive time the Bryon Bay prodigy had won both titles.
Zoric is a striking figure, in and out of the water. While waiting for the competition to start, the 13-year-old dons a bright pink unicorn beanie while warming-up on the sand.
Halfway through the women’s final on Sunday, Zoric has not caught a wave. Finally, the perfect one comes and the 13-year-old explodes into action. Driving down the face, gathering speed before snapping off the lip, she sends a curtain of spray skyward.
The swell gathers height, and Zoric feeds off its energy, producing impressive snaps and carve-ups, scoring eights and nines.
At just 13 years old, she is building an impressive resume. A proud Yued Yorga woman from Bundjalung Country, she has won multiple state titles and championships, including Surfing Australia’s prestigious rising star award in 2025, following in world champion Molly Picklum’s footsteps.
It all makes sense when you consider her lineage. The teenager hails from a family of surfers. Her mother Kirsty is a Western Australian state champion.
When Zoric was just two days old, her father and grandfather placed the tiny newborn on a surfboard at Broken Head Beach in northern NSW.
“The waves weren’t big, so it was like perfect conditions for me, and I had nothing else to do,” Zoric laughs.
“They took me down on this little surf mat they had bought for me, and then my dad was holding me, and my mom was filming and then my pa was standing next to my dad … I had the biggest smile on my face.”
For Zoric, surfing feels like home – she feels a deep connection to country and her family’s culture the second she steps into the ocean. Her chosen individual totem is a dolphin – known as kwelena in Noongar-Yued language.
“Every time, I’m out there, I see dolphins, and I just feel really connected through my culture when I see animals and I love going in the water because I can really feel the connection to Mother Nature,” she says.
Zoric’s commitment to pursuing her surfing dreams requires a rigorous schedule.
She aims to do two to four hours of schoolwork a night, while also balancing gym training and surfing. She used to do acrobatic training and karate, and also makes time for breath-work, stretching days and mindfulness workshops to help with high-pressure scenarios.
There’s also room in her schedule to keep up with the latest television shows and movies. She loves crime movies and action-packed films, but there’s still a special place in her heart for cartoons, with Lilo and Stich and cult-classic Surfs Up one of her favourites.
Her resilience was tested in January 2025, when she suffered a grade-three tear to the medial collateral ligament in her knee – the most serious injury of her career. It took her two months to get back in the water, but the teenager said she came back “bigger, better and stronger than ever”.
Articulate and candid about the importance of mental strength and resilience, she speaks with the maturity of someone far older and wiser.
She regularly uses positive self-affirmation before and during competitions – something she’s worked on.
“I do have a mental coach, but I also feel like I’ve naturally taught myself to believe in myself,” she says.
“I guess because I did start competing early, and I did lose quite a bit, so it taught me that I need to be a bit confident and have confidence in myself, so I can achieve my goals and perform well.”
In January this year, the teenager travelled to Western Australia for a few weeks to surf at North Point Beach – a surfing hotspot renowned for its heavy-duty waves and fast-breaking barrels.
While paddling out, Zoric was hit by a series of 12 to 15-foot high waves, holding her underwater.
“It was just constant… I was just like, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die’ and I swear it was like the third-last wave, and I think I blacked out,” she says. “My brain was like ‘Oh my god, get me out of here, I’m gonna drown’.”
Zoric managed to get back to shore and found herself crying to her mum.
“I said “Mum, I nearly drowned out there’, and my brother was right there next to me, and he said ‘Leihani, what are you doing? Get back out there’,” she laughs recounting the story.
The scary experience compelled the teenager to enroll in surf apnea workshops in Bryon Bay – breath-work training adapted from freediving to help surfers survive intense underwater hold-downs and manage panic during wipeout.
Zoric did several one-hour workshops twice a week, and now feels much more confident if the incident ever happens again.
The teenager takes inspiration from her surfing idols: Carissa Moore, the first winner of Olympic gold in women’s short-board surfing, and Erin Brooks, who was runner-up in the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
Zoric has earned a prestigious place in the Surfing Australia Olympic pathway Ppogram and has her sights sets on making the world tour in make the world tour in 2028, heading to the LA Olympics and then Brisbane in 2032.
“I want to win Olympic gold, and a couple of world titles would be nice as well,” she laughs.
Her mum Kirsty is in awe of Zoric’s achievements, but prouder of the kind and resilient person her daughter is.
“I’m super proud of her, and it’s awesome to be an amazing surfer, but most importantly, being a good human comes first,” she said.
“And I think she carries herself well in that sense of being like humble and caring for others.”
with Justin McManus
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