Sunshine Coast surfer Isabella Nichols awaits start of Maui Pro.

Sunshine Coast surfer Isabella Nichols is ready to hit the waves in Hawaii for her debut Championship Tour. 

Isabella Nichols eagerly awaits her first wave of the World Surf league Championship Tour. Picture: Adam Head

Sunshine Coast surfer Isabella Nichols is eagerly awaiting her first wave of the World Surf League Championship Tour.

The Maui Pro has faced three lay days so far, with the conditions on the first stop of the women's 2021 tour falling flat.

It's Nichols first year on the Championship Tour.

The rookie, who began surfing at age 9, has had a big year already despite most competitions being cancelled in 2020.

The Coolum surfer took out the Pro Gold Coast at South Stradbroke Island in September, defeating fellow Sunshine Coast surfer Sophie McCulloch.

Junior strike weapons celebrate 100 goal haul

12k without power after storm hits

Nichols said it has been a tough waiting game in Maui.

"It's hard in a sense, you have to wake up every morning at the crack of dawn and switch on," Nichols said.

"I've been waking up at 5:30 every morning and I mean you kind of assume whether it's going to be on or not depending on the forecast.

"That's the hard part about our sport, I feel because we have such long waiting periods you have to be so mentally prepared every single day."

The 23-year-old said even when the competition gets started, a lay-day is always back of mind.

"The whole thing of momentum is huge in our sport," she said.

"You could have a few really good heats and then the swell goes flat and you have to wait a week for the next swell.

"Surfing is such a mental game, I feel like it's 30 per cent talent and 70 per cent mental."

Originally published as Sunshine Coast surfer Isabella Nichols awaits start of Maui Pro.