Latest news with #IsabellaNichols
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
South African veteran Jordy Smith and new world No.1 Gabriela Bryan take Margaret River Pro titles as Aussie Isabella Nicholls wins new car
The final two events on the WTC Australian swing failed to deliver a local winner after South African veteran Jordy Smith and new world No.1 Gabriela Bryan took out the men's and women's events at Margaret River. But Bells Beach champ Isabella Nichols flew the Aussie flag after taking out the Aussie Treble, which was awarded to the best surfer over the three Australian events, including Bells and the Gold Coast Pro. Bryan proved a destroyer of local hopes on her way to her second title of the year, ending Sally Fitzgibbons' season on Monday before the 23-year-old Hawaiian defended the title she won last year by taking down reigning world champ Caitlin Simmers in a dominant final display. 'I'm honestly speechless, I don't know what to think,' Bryan said after her win. 'I've just been surfing how I want to surf and I just can't believe it.' Smith, in his 18th season on tour, then scorched enigmatic American star Griffin Colapinto to secure only his eighth tour win, but his second in 2025, after ending an eight-year drought in El Salvador. He'll take the No.1 ranking to the next event in California next month. There were no Aussies in either final in Western Australia, the first time in the three Australian events. Nichols and Jack Robinson won at Bells, while Fitzgibbons and comeback star Julian Wilson lost finals on the Gold Coast. The effort of Nichols to secure one title, while making quarter-finals on the Gold Coast and again at Margaret River, helped secure her fourth spot on the world rankings and the Aussie Treble, which came with a new car. Nichols, Molly Picklum and Tyler Wright were the only Australian women to make the mid-season cut and will contest the rest of the season in their bid for the world title. Ethan Ewing, Robinson and Joel Vaughan made the men's cut, with four more events before the finals in Fiji in August.
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
A Hollywood stunt double in high school, Izzy's Bells triumph the tale of a lifetime
Isabella Nichols had her first taste of Hollywood during her final month of high school. She'd happily take another once the whole professional surfing caper winds up. Though she could well be designing wave pools by then. Or still trying to piece together the biggest moment of her career – the Bells Beach triumph that remains a blur of nerves, instinctive surfing and original Broncos jerseys. 'Honestly, I can't remember too much of it,' Nichols said with a laugh down the line having just arrived home on the Gold Coast with surfing's most iconic trophy – the big bell – in her keeping. 'It hasn't sunk in because it's still such a blur. To have my parents [Ross and Elizabeth] down there, and my dad chairing me up the beach in his Broncos jersey – that was my greatest win, just because my family was there.' Nichols is the feel-good story of surfing, topping her previous claim to fame as Gossip Girl star Blake Lively's stunt double in the 2016 horror movie The Shallows. Like her breakthrough Bells victory, Nichols can't recall too much of the film either. She's watched it only once in the cinema, given 'it was too weird seeing her face imposed on my body'. And watching that body then get attacked by a monstrous shark. But in almost a decade since picking up the Hollywood cameo on Lord Howe Island as Lively's double, the 27-year-old has a story of her own to tell. Along with the forever-smiling Sally Fitzgibbons, Nichols has been the face of the WSL's controversial mid-season cut, which culls the tour from 16 permanent surfers to 10 each year.
The Age
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
A Hollywood stunt double in high school, Izzy's Bells triumph the tale of a lifetime
Isabella Nichols had her first taste of Hollywood during her final month of high school. She'd happily take another once the whole professional surfing caper winds up. Though she could well be designing wave pools by then. Or still trying to piece together the biggest moment of her career – the Bells Beach triumph that remains a blur of nerves, instinctive surfing and original Broncos jerseys. 'Honestly, I can't remember too much of it,' Nichols said with a laugh down the line having just arrived home on the Gold Coast with surfing's most iconic trophy – the big bell – in her keeping. 'It hasn't sunk in because it's still such a blur. To have my parents [Ross and Elizabeth] down there, and my dad chairing me up the beach in his Broncos jersey – that was my greatest win, just because my family was there.' Nichols is the feel-good story of surfing, topping her previous claim to fame as Gossip Girl star Blake Lively's stunt double in the 2016 horror movie The Shallows. Like her breakthrough Bells victory, Nichols can't recall too much of the film either. She's watched it only once in the cinema, given 'it was too weird seeing her face imposed on my body'. And watching that body then get attacked by a monstrous shark. But in almost a decade since picking up the Hollywood cameo on Lord Howe Island as Lively's double, the 27-year-old has a story of her own to tell. Along with the forever-smiling Sally Fitzgibbons, Nichols has been the face of the WSL's controversial mid-season cut, which culls the tour from 16 permanent surfers to 10 each year.
The Advertiser
27-04-2025
- Sport
- The Advertiser
Aussie surfers Robinson and Nichols salute at Bells
Jack Robinson and Isabella Nichols have made it a double triumph for Australia with thrilling victories in the Rip Curl Pro finals at Bells Beach.
The Advertiser
27-04-2025
- Sport
- The Advertiser
Aussie Nichols into Bells Beach title decider
Isabella Nichols will get a second chance this month to go for a World Surf League title after taking down two-time champion Tyler Wright in the Rip Curl Pro semi-finals at Bells Beach.
