Seven Minutes Of Damage From Australia’s Youngest World Junior Champ

Leihani Zoric, 13, Is the Youngest ISA U18 Junior Champion in History.

That means competing three age divisions above her own, despite being so sick that her parents asked her not to go to El Salvador for the very event she’d go on to win.

The Yued Mob natural-footer from Broken Head (Bundjalung Country) also happens to be Australia’s first Indigenous World Junior Champion.

It’s not as if Australian women’s surfing is at a deficit for world titles, but Leihani is already being touted as one of the young talents capable of adding a few more to the honours list.

Just before spreading her Irukandji venom across El Sal, “Lei” spent three weeks at sea in the Northern Atolls of the Maldives, sharpening her sting far from terrestrial noise and distraction.

No Reception provides about seven minutes of Leihani twisting necks and dropping chins in delectable surf. The most extensive documentation of her freesurfing to date.

Get acquainted with the name and face, as Lei will be representing Australia’s senior team at the ISA World Surfing Games in Peru next month — and probably into the greater surfing periphery in the next few years.