Inglewood’s Annabel Stevenson wins WWA U14 girls’ title at Gold Coast

Inglewood wakeboarder Annabel Stevenson says mastering jumps and tricks are the best part of wakeboarding.

Annabel Stevenson, 11, from Inglewood is riding the waves of success, with the title World Wake Association U14 girls champion.

The young wakeboarder travelled to Australia last month as part of the New Zealand wakeboarding team for the Nautique 2024 WWA World Championship held at the Marine Stadium on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Despite some less than perfect weather during both her heat and final, that left Annabel with “water in my face, and the wind pushing me so I had to fight it”, she pulled off some impressive tricks in the water, gaining her points from the judges.

In competitive wakeboarding events such as the championship, judges are on the competition boat, with competitors riding their wakeboard behind them. Each rider gets two passes of the course, during which they need to demonstrate as many jumps and tricks as possible. The judges assess the riders on their technicality, intensity and style of their tricks. The rider with the highest points then wins.

It was Annabel’s first world championship and was certainly a baptism of fire, said her father, Jason.

He said the weather was extremely challenging for her qualifying heat, resulting in a couple of falls during her first pass.

“Fortunately Annabel had put in enough tricks with technicality and intensity to qualify for the final.”

He said she then worked hard overnight, thinking through her riding strategy to adjust to and account for the difficult riding conditions before the final the next day.

“She put together a two pass run that demonstrated her best riding ability for the conditions.”

Annabel said the weather conditions were tough to deal with.

“It was really rough on the water.”

With it being her first world championship, and the stormy weather, she wasn’t expecting to come out on top.

“For a bit I thought I had a chance, but then not really.”

She’s been wakeboarding for three or four years, having first tried waterskiing.

“I love being in the water. As soon as I tried wakeboarding I loved it and decided to keep doing it.”

Annabel Stevenson, 11, has won the World Wake Association 10-13 girls Nautique WWA World Championship 2024.

A major appeal is the fun she said, “and doing jumps and tricks”.

The trip to the Gold Coast was a successful one for Team NZ said Annabel’s mother, Letitia.

“As well as Annabel, they had some really good results across the junior division, they all did really well.”

Annabel goes to school at Waitoriki near Inglewood, but after the school holidays she won’t be there long.

On Wednesday, October 16 she’s flying out to Hangzhou in China to compete in the International Waterski and Wakeboard federation 2024 World Champs in the under 14 girls category.

“It will be fun. I’m looking forward to it, the competition and exploring China.”

She loves the competitive part of the sport, she said, as well as pushing herself to achieve her own personal bests and to master new tricks and jumps.

“It’s just fun. I enjoy it. Spending time with family on the boat and the view is always beautiful.”

So far, the Stevenson family has funded Annabel’s sporting career themselves, along with some “very helpful” funding from Wake NZ which has covered some coaching costs and Team NZ uniforms, said Letitia.

“We haven’t had time to do any fundraising - every spare moment Annabel is out on the water training.”

Being out on the water so much isn’t something Annabel plans to change anytime soon.

“It’s awesome fun.”

Ilona Hanne is a Taranaki-based journalist and news director who covers breaking and community news from across the lower North Island. She has worked for NZME since 2011.