Isabella Nichols: How embracing weight gain and Where’s Wally have inspired surf star

One of Australian surfing’s next big stars, Isabella Nichols, is incoporating unique methods as she prepares for the 2024 season, including Where’s Wally and weight gain, writes JAMIE PANDARAM.

Where’s Wally and weight gain aren’t your typical key ingredients for athletic excellence but surfing star Isabella Nichols believes they are exactly what will take her to the next level.

The 25-year-old Queenslander, with the help of sports psychologists, is incorporating unique methods into her training as she prepares for the 2024 season.

“I’ve been doing a lot of pressure drills because I’ve found that my weakness is making decisions under duress, stress and pressure,” Nichols said.

“Especially in the heat, as time ticks on, I just have to make a decision, not even the right decision, just a decision.

Top surfing prospect Isabella Nichols pictured at Burleigh Heads ahead of the Gold Coast Open. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“I’ve been putting myself in those situations more often where I have made the stakes a lot harder and a lot higher, adding challenges along the way, so if I do make a decision there are consequences.”

So Nichols, who won the 2022 Margaret River Pro in the WSL series, has turned to the world’s favourite hidden red-and-white-striped figure.

“We’ve done some Where’s Wally things or some Scrabble games where you have to think on your feet really quickly, and then run back out and continue the heat,” she said.

Nichols has used Where's Wally to help improving her surfing.

“We’ll have a 15-minute heat and the consequence would be if you take off on a wave you will have to come and do a physically or mentally draining activity so it gives you the stimulus that, ‘If I make a decision there are consequences’.

“Even if it’s a good decision, you still have to come in and run around a pole.

“Those are things we’ve been doing to drill down that you do need to make a decision, and there are consequences and rewards for every action.

“But being decisive in any way, shape or form is better than being indecisive.

“They are 15 minute heats, so with the Where’s Wally test you really have to calm your mind down and find out where he is, and it makes it a lot harder if you’re thinking about getting your next wave.

“You have to learn how to focus on your breath and slow it down. Same with the Scrabble, the longer you spend on those tasks, the less time you get in the water, so it’s regulating.

“I’m doing that through Surfing Australia. They have a couple of sports psychs there who have been helping me, to put myself in those situations more often.

“A lot of the time I fail, there are times I get it. Hopefully the more I do, the better I’ll get at it.

Isabella Nichols competes in the women's final during the Sydney Surf Pro. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“Even learning how to make a decision in general life, like what I want for dinner, what I want to do that day, all correlate to being a better performer in the water.

“It gives me the ability to make a decision quickly and confidently.”

Nichols finished 15th overall in the women’s series last year, having made the second round in the first three events, placing third at Bells Beach and then bombing at Margaret River to be knocked out in the first round and cut mid-year.

“If I can make the mental improvements, I’ll give myself a lot better chance to not have to go back to the Challenger Series,” Nichols said.

“Even having tough conversations rather than avoiding them like I previously did, that can lead to being more decisive in the water. I still have a long way to go but I still have time.

“I go to Hawaii on January 6, the competition doesn’t start until the 29th, so I have time to work on things.”

One of the key changes Nichols has made over the years is her physique. She has used a training routine of weightlifting, pilates, cardio and breath work to gain weight.

“My body is changing,” Nichols said. “It’s a bit daunting at times because I used to have a really quick metabolism.

“Now, it’s always what I’ve wanted – to get bigger and stronger – but it’s daunting.

“I’m really happy with how responsive my body has been.

“But not just the surf industry, every industry, has painted a picture of thin surf girls in bikinis. Only recently, that’s been knocked down by people.

“I know this but it’s hard mentally to watch your body change even though you know it’s for the better.

“Society is changing and we are realising that athletic women have different body shapes, and will have different body shapes if you want to do well, and that is my goal.

“It’s breaking those gender stereotypes that we’ve been so ingrained to listen to from a young age but it is changing.

“I was 57kg a few years ago, I was a bloody stick insect. I look back at photos and think, ‘How did I not snap?’

“Now I’m 66kg to 67kg and feeling really strong and fit, and it’s just that adaptation period that a lot of females go through, but I’m stoked.

“I don’t want any young females getting into surfing thinking they need to be stick thin. I don’t think there are any females on tour now that are uber thin.

Isabella Nichols has a big future in the surf.

“You need a different body type, with the change in wave profiles going to Pipe and Sunset and Bells and Margs.

“It’s like a big-wave tour now so you actually need a bit of meat on your bones. You wouldn’t throw any spray or look powerful, which is what the judges want.”

Nichols is determined to bounce back into the top 10.

“The last few years have been very different, making the cut last year and then having to do the Challenger Series this year,” she said.

“It’s been a lot of adjusting but I feel like it’s taught me a lot about myself and what I need to do to improve.

“That’s where I spent a lot of the past six months, looking at how I can get better.

“Whereas maybe if I had not have that happen to me I wouldn’t have looked so closely at the flaws I have and how I can improve.

“So it’s been good but it’s been a very tough challenge confronting all those things I need to get better at and working towards doing it, and failing a lot of the time at it.

“It’s been rewarding and I love it. I have the best job in the world, we get to travel the world and go surfing.”

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Originally published as Isabella Nichols: How embracing weight gain and Where’s Wally have inspired surf star