Nautique World Wakeboarding Championships 2024: Top Aussie wakeboarders lift lid on life in the niche sport

These two names may not be common with the Aussie sporting vernacular, but they should be. The story of Australia’s wakeboarding world champions who are ‘living the dream’.

Over 400 of the world’s best wakeboarders have flocked to the Gold Coast for the 2024 Nautique World Wakeboarding Championships.

The Championships are hosted at The Spit, Main Beach and Burleigh Heads local Cory Teunissen and Sydney-born Zahra Kell are among the top talents vying for a title.

Teunissen’s may not be name common with Aussie sporting vernacular, but it should be.

He boasts a resume rivalled by few that includes being a five-time world champion and four-time world series champion, and has over 64,000 followers on Instagram, while Kell’s following is in excess of 240,000.

26-year-old Teunissen was introduced to the sport by his father and had racked up two world titles by the age of 15, in that time becoming the youngest person to land a wake-to-wake 1080.

Residing in Orlando, Florida for six month blocks to work on perfecting his craft, the young sensation is currently second in the WWA World Ranking and has finished in the top three consistently for the last five years.

He was ranked first at the close of the 2019 season.

“I try to spend as much time at home as I can, but I base myself off six and six (months) and every year is different,” Teunissen said.

“The first time I spent a big chunk of time (in America) I was 13 years old.”

Corey Teunissen at World Wakeboarding Championships 2024, Gold Coast Australia. Photo Credit - kaleb kennedy - the WWA

From ages 14 to 18, Teunissen and his older brother Brad – who was also heavily involved with the sport – stuck side-by-side as they navigated the professional wakeboarding world.

“We lived together, travelled together and basically were living the dream,” he said.

Perhaps his living overseas is why those at home haven’t caught on until now, but the Aussie knows what it takes to make it in the niche sport.

“If you want to make it in this sport, that’s where you need to be … to get noticed, to get sponsors and progress your riding with some of the best in the world over there,” he said.

“It’s a hub for (wakeboarding).

“If you wanna be them, you’ve got to ride with them and see how they do it.”

The demands of cracking into such an extreme sport take their toll, given Teunissen underwent two ankle reconstructions in March, and has also injured shoulders, elbows and torn his moniscus.

“It’s all apart of it, it’s a risk that we know and that we accept everytime we get out on the water, it is what it is,” Teunissen said, whose passion has kept him in the game for 14 years.

“It’s crazy to think about it, but I’ve loved every moment.”

For Kell, extreme sport is simply in her blood.

She was a world champion in wakeboarding and a national champion in snowboarding by the age of eight.

She first hit the water on a wakeboard at just 18 months old – standing between her father Scott’s legs, who is arguably the godfather of wakeboarding in Australia – before trying it solo at the age of three.

“I’ve been super competitive ever since I was young,” Kell said.

“I entered my first (wakeboarding) competition when I was six and came second and told dad I wanted the better prize, so he taught me how.”

Zahra Kell at Wakeboarding World Championships 2024, Gold Coast Australia. Photo Credit - kaleb kennedy - the WWA

Now following in his footsteps and taking it even further, Kell said it’s all pretty dreamy.

“I’ve grown up on the water with him and around everyone that he coaches.

“The community we have … is just so amazing.”

Kell took a break from the sport from 2020-2022 to pursue a more ‘traditional’ career path, thinking she’d spent enough time in the water.

She first took up a position as a gym membership consultant, before dabbling in traffic control followed by automotive sales.

It didn’t take long to realise wakeboarding was where she felt most at home.

“The corporate nine-to-five really sent me over the edge and I thought ‘what am I doing’.

“I ended up coming back and falling in love with it all again,” she said.

“I really have the motivation now, I want to do it and I want to push and win.”

It’s the first time since 2019 that both the Wake Park and Nautique Wakeboard World Championships have been hosted in the same country and same city, and it’s been two decades since the wakeboarding championships last landed on Australian shores.

The Wake Park championships wrapped up at Oxenford on September 24, while the wakeboarding is free to attend and will run from Thursday September 26, with the finals on Sunday September 29.

Originally published as Nautique World Wakeboarding Championships 2024: Top Aussie wakeboarders lift lid on life in the niche sport