Riding the waves

While most people are heading home from work in the evenings, you’ll find Ella Williams paddling out into the surf in the coastal Coromandel town of Whangamata. As a multi-title world champion athlete, she lives and breathes the surfing lifestyle from sunrise to sundown.

The average day tends to start at the crack of dawn with an early ocean swim or a workout at the gym, followed by a smoothie and a day of work in her parent’s Whangamata Surf Shop, before clocking off in the afternoon and heading straight back to the beach with her board where she rides the waves until dark.

“They are full on, big days, but it’s good. I like to keep busy,” she grins. And