Kelia Mehani Gallina: the 12-year-old girl staring down monster waves at Teahupo'o

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/aug/05/kelia-mehani-gallina-12-year-old-girl-world-surf-league-tahiti-teahupoo

Kelia Mehani Gallina: the 12-year-old girl staring down monster waves at Teahupo’o

The young Tahiti surfer will become the WSL’s youngest competitor when she takes on the fearsome break she can see from her family home

Kieran Pender
Mon 4 Aug 2025 22.00 EDT

When the final leg of the World Surf League (WSL) regular season begins in Tahiti this week, Kelia Mehani Gallina will make history. Just 12 years old, the Tahitian local won the event trials last month to book a spot in the main draw, making her the youngest competitor in WSL history. She will face the current world No 1, Molly Picklum of Australia, and American star Lakey Peterson in the opening round, before celebrating her 13th birthday midway through the event.

The contest site, Teahupo’o, is renowned as being among the heaviest waves in the world. But Gallina is a regular – she speaks to the Guardian by phone with her father, Ryan, from their home in Teahupo’o village. “We can see [the wave] from our bedroom,” says Ryan, who is originally from Hawaii (Kelia’s mother is Tahitian). Such is her local status that Kelia’s Instagram handle is simply @MissTeahupoo.

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Kelia started surfing when she was three, at the suggestion of her father – himself a passionate surfer. “It’s always fun,” she says. “I have a lot of friends who surf every day too, so I’m just with them, all day, every day.” Barely a decade later, Kelia will surf against the best in the world.

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