Ava Holland announced as part of Hyundai Team Electric

CASUARINA, NSW (December 13, 2022): Surfing Australia and Hyundai have wrapped up the first season of ‘Hyundai She’s Electric’, a leaderboard created to recognise and amplify female grassroots athletes on a national scale. It was the first time that a ranking system was created off the back of the Hyundai Australian Boardriders Battle, leveraging LiveHeats™ data to recruit ‘Hyundai Team Electric’ – the next wave of rising female athletes smashing misconceptions of surf.

Over 4 months and 8 events around Australia from the Gold Coast to Trigg Beach in WA and back again, we‘ve uncovered who the standout performers are from boardrider clubs across the country.

After decades of facing tough conditions, Hyundai She’s Electric has created an equal playing field for women and unearthed breakout talent. While these women competed in the Australian Boardriders Battle within their boardrider team, the Hyundai She’s Electric Leaderboard platform extracted their high scores and performance data to identify female Australian Boardrider Battle competitors in each event to create a national ranking.

Now we have our top 5 surfers that make up Hyundai’s Team Electric:

1^st place | Top score of 9.17 – Rubie Reents, Ulladulla Boardriders Club, NSW
2^nd place | Top score of 8.67 – Tayla Hanak, Culburra Boardriders Club, NSW
3^rd place | Top score of 7.17 – Sophie McCulloch, North Shore Boardriders Club, QLD
4^th place | Top score of 7 – Ava Holland, Peninsular Boardriders Club, VIC
5^th place | Top Score of 6.93 – Jahly Stokes, Kawana Boardriders Club, QLD

Surfing Australia Head of Partnerships, Clarissa Pike said “On beaches and Boardrider clubs all around Australia there are women discovering or rekindling their love of surfing, yet many of these faces are yet to be discovered. Hyundai want to change this. Leveraging their marquee sponsorship of the biggest grassroots surfing event in Australia, the Hyundai Australian Boardriders Battle, we created this exciting platform, the ‘She’s Electric Leaderboard’, designed to unearth breakout female talent. Tapping into our goal to support and supercharge the trend we’ve seen all over the country, particularly during covid, of women surfing, this platform will uncover the talented women that will inspire the next generation of girls and women to surf”.

Hyundai Motor Company Australia Chief Operating Officer, John Kett said “At Hyundai we believe in driving Progress for Humanity, and we couldn’t be prouder to partner with Surfing Australia to tackle the under-representation of female grassroots athletes. This transformative approach to sponsorship not only creates a fairer playing field but ignites the imagination of young female surfers – and the surf community – of what’s possible. Together, we’re paving the future of surfing, today. Imagine that!”.

The top five athletes on the ‘Hyundai She’s Electric’ Leaderboard will be heading to the Hyundai Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC) on December 19 – 21 for a surf camp. This includes three-days of intensive training at the HPC, surf analysis from some of Australia’s top surf coaches, surf-specific strength and conditioning sessions, media training and workshops run by surfing icons and pioneers of women’s surfing.

Visit the She’s Electric Leaderboard here.