Indigo Mackenzie to represent WA at the Australian Surf Championships

A local teen who picked up a longboard less than a year ago is set to represent WA in the Australian Surf Championships.

As the only under-18 female competitor in WA, Indigo Mackenzie, 16, blitzed the qualifying scores in the State rounds to earn her place in the competition to be held in Port Macquarie this August.

“I’ve been surfing since I was six. I started doing lessons in Secret Harbour and I’ve pretty much shortboarded my whole life, but this is my first year of longboarding,” Indigo said.

“Last year I was really unwell, I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, and I had low iron as well so I was passing out all the time, I could barely stand, so I took a few months off surfing.

“I went down to Denmark for my birthday, and I met Mike Neunuebel and saw these waves that I thought would be amazing for a longboard, so I hired one off him and I just fell in love with it.”

Indigo said her teacher told her mum she had potential.

“He offered to do a private lesson with me the next day and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she said.

The Australian Surf Championships are held between August 6-23 with surfers competing in the shortboard, longboard, logger and para surfing titles.

Indigo will be competing in two categories, longboard and logging (more traditionally shaped surfboards), and said she can’t wait.

“I am pretty bloody nervous, this is my first year both surfing and competing on a longboard. But the girls over there are incredible, so for me it’s just going to be an amazing experience surfing against Australia’s best,” she said.

“In WA particularly, there’s just not that many girls involved in the surfing world so it would be so great to see more girls getting out there and being a part of this amazing sport.”

Indigo and her mother have set up a GoFundMe page called Send Indigo To The Aussie Titles to help with the costs of the trip.