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.
Isabella Nichols is chaired up the beach by her coach Matt Grainger and dad Ross, in his beloved Broncos jersey.Credit: World Surf League
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.
When it was first introduced in 2022, nothing less than the Margaret River Pro victory she pulled out of the fire could keep Nichols’ season alive that year.
Isabella Nichols carves up at Bells Beach.Credit: World Surf League
The past two campaigns though, she’s fallen foul of the cut, and fought her way back on tour each time via the WSL’s off-Broadway qualifying circuit – where the glamour of show business and even pro surfing is thin on the ground.
“It’s such a weird feeling being on the other side of the cut line right now,” the world No.4 said.
“I’m so used to having to claw my way back. But as weird as it sounds, it’s been the best thing for me. Because I’ve had to really deep dive into my surfing and be brutally honest with myself, which I don’t think I’ve always done.
“Why am I not getting through heats? Why am I not getting scores? That’s not easy to answer, and you do wonder where the next win comes from.
“But it makes it so much sweeter when you get there, all those challenges and sacrifices – and winning is pretty addictive.”
Nichols is now into her eighth year on tour but almost walked away for good at age 22.
The mechanical engineering degree she took up at the time is now a slow burn for a pro surfer.
“But it combines surfing and maths, two things I love,” she said with a laugh. “And one day I want to build and design wave pools – so that’s a pretty good start. Renewable energy is something I’m really interested in as well.”
First things first though – the Gold Coast Pro on her own doorstep awaits this week. Then a catch-up with twin sister Helena, whose wedding Nichols missed earlier this month while jagging a runner’s up finish in El Salvador.
The rest of the Championship Tour awaits, and a family trip back to Lord Howe Island at the end of the year. Just so coincidentally landing 10 years since “probably the most surreal experience I’ve ever had.”
“It’s funny, I still forget it happened a little bit,” she said of living in Lively’s pocket as a teenager for a few weeks, stepping in to surf idyllic reefs whenever the script dictated.
“It was just so far removed from my normal life. I was just finishing high school and was recruited for the role.
“I was just finishing high school and, suddenly, I’m in an island paradise, working from 4.30 in the morning ’til 8 at night, stunt doubling for my favourite actress.
“And the movie industry was just mind-blowing. I’d wake up and there was a new director or someone different. Someone had been fired or rehired, and then I’d be sitting in make-up next to Blake and her baby thinking what is this?
“I’d love to do it again some time. It’s a pretty cool thing to come up in conversation.”
