Meet Rachael Tilly, world longboard champion, making an impact in the surf industry

Words: Tim Baker

When it comes to the ideal surfing pedigree to find a career in the surf industry, they don’t come much better qualified than Rachael Tilly.

Hailing from a dedicated, surfing family, Rachael was world longboard champion at just 17, the youngest world champ in the history of the sport. She worked with legendary Californian shaper Terry Martin until his death from melanoma and a year later, developed a surfer/shaper relationship with Terry’s son Josh.

A long fascination with Australia inspired her to relocate from her home in San Clemente, California, to study for a Sports Management Degree at Bond University on the Gold Coast. Then an internship at the World Surf League and a string of volunteer roles at WSL events led to a gig at The Surfboard Warehouse  in charge of community outreach, which she’s managed to combine with a part-time role at WSL as partnerships coordinator. 

And all this at the age of just 22. The constants throughout this varied surfing career have been Rachael’s sunny, optimistic disposition and a burning ambition to make a positive contribution to the sport of surfing. “By the end of it all I really want to make a positive impact for the surf industry as a whole,” says Rachael, as we chat in her office at the Surfboard Warehouse HQ in Miami, on the Gold Coast. 

She’s passionate about breaking down divisions between different genres of wave-riding and creating a more inclusive surf culture. “Minds need to be opened, changes need to happen … I am someone who loves surfing but I always had a very broad view and  poked myself out of that bubble to bring that perspective to it, bring us out of speaking to the same people.”

Rachael’s grommet-hood was the archetypal Californian surf upbringing, finding her feet at her local beach, Doheny. “It gets a bit of a bad rap as a beginner wave but it can get really good on the right swell,” she says, with the loyalty of a true local. She was constantly hassling her dad to take her surfing from  the age of four. “Once I was 7 or 8 years old, he was no longer going surfing without taking me,” she says.

She naturally gravitated to longboarding and discovered she thrived in the burgeoning competitive scene for young female longboarders at the height of the women’s surf brand Roxy running events.  “We used to have the Roxy Wahine classic every September at San Onofre. I surfed in the itsy bitsy teeny wahine division, 8 and under,” she recalls. Rachael lost early at her first two attempts, at the ages of 6 and 7, but had her heart set on success in her final year in the division. “They had this beautiful first place trophy, a big fin on a wooden stand, and I just wanted it so bad,” she says. “I trained so hard. All I did was stand up with my hands above my head, and do little head dips, those were my winning waves.” She wound up winning the division and that prized trophy at age 8. “That and my world title are my two favourite trophies ever,” she says. “I got a taste for what that win felt like.”

That feeling unleashed a deep competitive drive that knew no bounds. A Hurley video in 2011 introduces a 12-year-old Rachael to the surfing world as a “longboard savant”. In it, she announces her goal to become the youngest world surfing champion ever. She still marvels at her youthful ambition  and recalls the terror of having revealed the dizzy heights of her dreams to the world. “Oh no, I’ve said it out load for everyone to hear,” she remembers thinking.  

“I had this goal. My dad and I were surfing so much, he knew I had this goal. My vision was, the sky’s the limit,” she says. “My parent’s were very involved from when I was young, without ever being pushy. They would always help give me the tools to achieve that. I really started believing, why can’t I, if I put my mind to it and have the resources and my parents support me?”

Where did that ambition come from? “I’ve always held my ambition deep in my gut. In school I was always wanting to have the best grades in the class.”

Every weekend was spent at the beach at local contests, her younger brother, her father and herself each surfing heats. “Dad would surf in the senior division, I was competing, my brother was competing. I remember saying, ‘I’m so excited my heat’s next', and this other kid said, ‘I’ve been dreading my heat all day.’ I couldn’t understand that. My dad likes to remind me of that when I get anxious about competing.”

But things really clicked when she met legendary shaper Terry Martin, who recognised something special in the small-statured but prodigious surfing talent. Rachael was doing a school assignment on the evolution of surfboards from timber to foam and a family friend suggested she interview the iconic shaper, who happened to live in her neighbourhood. She landed on his doorstep unannounced, in the midst of his dinner, and explained the reason for her visit. Terry pushed his dinner aside and delivered a history lesson on the development of the modern longboard while his meal went cold. 

Like a scene from the Karate Kid, Martin became Rachael’s very own Mr Miyagi and a deep friendship formed, despite a 60-year age gap. “He invited me to come and shape a surfboard that weekend, and that was awesome. He saw a video of me surfing  and said, ‘You have something special, I want to shape your boards.’ I was 12 or 13 at the time …  He had this amazing ability to give every single person all the time in the world.”

What followed was an intense two years of surfboard development and friendship between the young longboarder and one of California’s most celebrated surfboard craftsmen. “We just started shaping boards all the time, so many boards, it was like a conveyor belt, all hand shaped,” she says. “He’d come watch me surf four days a week. He provided so much of the energy pushing it forward, the reason I have such a sense of  the evolution of boards. We worked tirelessly for years.”

And Rachael’s competitive fortunes soared, Terry’s carefully honed, custom equipment offering the ideal platform for Rachael’s endless drive and dextrous skills.  The results seemed almost inevitable. She won seven straight West Coast titles and won the schools state title every year from year 6 through to year 12, the only time anyone had achieved that feat. But in the midst of this competitive success, Rachael lost her beloved mentor to skin cancer. 

“Terry passed away when I was 14, that was pretty devastating. I was watching his decline … I have two of his final surfboards, so that’s pretty special,” she says. “The day he died I was in the final of the West Coast championships, I went for a practice session when my dad got the news. I  kept competing, but after all the tears, by the end of the day we got this sense that we weren’t competing for results.”

Rachael spoke at Terry’s memorial service in front of a veritable who’s who of Californian surfing. “I didn’t step in the shaping room for a year after that,” she says. Eventually, Rachael knew she needed to start working on new equipment to match her surfing development but didn’t think anyone would ever fill Terry’s formidable shoes, until she began working with Terry’s son Josh. “He had so many mannerisms like Terry, it was like being in the shaping bay with his ghost,” she says.

But after such a stellar amateur career, the jump to the pro ranks did not go quite to plan, with round two losses in her first two years, forcing Rachael to re-qualify through the North American championships. She did just that, with her father as coach, and re-qualified for the world championship event in China in 2015. “I was surfing the best I’d ever surfed in my life. I went to China and kept my head in gear. It was my first trip without my parents,” she recalls. 

Many competitors arrived with quivers of boards and sold them off to Chinese surfers hungry for western equipment, but Rachael’s father had advised her to hang on to her favourite board, that it might be the board she won her world title on.  It proved prophetic advice, as Rachael surfed her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming surfing’s youngest world champion.  That board now hangs in the Surfing Heritage and Culture Centre in San Clemente. 

Rachael had long held a fascination for Australia since she was 11. “I went to Hawaii with Hurley and Barton Lynch was our coach, and it was the first time I’d heard an Australian accent. I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” she says. She travelled Down Under for the first time when she was 16  and returned each year to compete, forging a deep connection. “When it was time for me to start college or university, I thought, I may as well have an experience of doing it somewhere else and Australia was the natural pick.”

She completed a Degree in Sports Management at Bond University on the Gold Coast, landed an internship at the World Surf League, then her job at the Surfboard Warehouse. Bond quickly recognised her as one of its star alumni of the sports management course, using her in marketing videos. But what may appear on the surface to be a charmed run of good fortune belies the hard work that has gone into pursuing her goals. 

“I volunteered at all the events here and I worked with a lot of people who already knew me from longboards,” she says. She got to know WSL’s Australasian director Andrew Stark and pestered him relentlessly for any work opportunities. “I saw Andrew out surfing. I told him, I’ve graduated, if you have any one day a week jobs or internships. I think I emailed my resume three times.”

She volunteered at the recent Tweed Coast and Stradbroke Island contests as the COVID official, taking people’s temperatures, reflecting one of her key career principles. “You’re never above any role. I will accept any role, because I’m green, despite having a degree, and I will learn anything.” 

She was rewarded with a part-time role as partnerships coordinator for WSL,  sourcing new sponsors and communicating with current sponsors. “I’m really trying to learn and be a sponge,” she says.

The Community Outreach role at the Surfboard Warehouse makes good use of her natural positivity and engaging manner. “I’m looking for ways in which we can help the business get in touch with the community,” she says. “We don’t just want to see you once and never see you again, and we don’t want to just sell you something.”

She’s introduced free yoga classes, a surfboard art competition on Instagram, and other community initiatives, including (in the interests of full transparency) a role as assistant editor of the website you are currently reading. And she has some salient advice for anyone aspiring to a career in the surf industry – even if they’re not a world champion with an impeccable surfing pedigree. 

“The surf industry is getting more open about bringing non-surfers on but it’s still an asset to have that surfing knowledge,” she says. “Do your homework and learn the history of surfing. Having knowledge helps a lot. It’s not that you have to be the best one out in the lineup but be equipped to talk and know about surfing . It’s important to keep the core values of surfing alive.”

At the time of writing, Rachael had just been offered and accepted a full-time role with the World Surf League so, sadly, we will be saying good bye to her from her role with the Coastline Magazine and the Surfboard Warehouse, but she’ll be continuing as a team rider and, we hope, occasional contributor. In the meantime, we wish her well in her new endeavours and look forward to watching her continued rise as a powerful advocate for an inclusive surf culture.

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