Bikini: Hot new look for bodyboard star Kira
TRIPLE WORLD bodyboard champion Kira Llewellyn has shed her laidback surfie image for a hot new look in a recent magazine shoot in the hope of raising her profile and attracting sponsors outside her sport.
The blonde hair is gone and the bikini and flippers have been replaced with jeans, leather and lace — an image Llewellyn hopes will help breathe new life into a sport regarded as surfing’s forgotten little sister.
“I’m excited with how the photos turned out and I hope people like them,” said Llewellyn, a former Maroochydore girl who now calls the Gold Coast home.
“The photos are a bit funky and sexy and I think it’s good to show people in different ways because sometimes it’s hard to get out of the beach-girl image.”
Llewellyn is sparking a revolution in a sport missing a dominant household name — perhaps until now.
The 23-year-old has been working hard to increase her profile. She has appeared in international bodyboard magazines, on the cover of Queensland lifestyle magazines and receives world-class coaching at her Casuarina Beach training base, the Surfing Australia High Performance Unit, the world’s first surf specific training centre.
As well as winning three world titles, Llewellyn has twice taken honours at the prestigious Pipeline event in Hawaii.
Llewellyn will be remembered as the first Australian woman to win a world bodyboard title but she would prefer to be remembered as the first Australian woman to win five or six world titles.
“I keep redefining my goals,” she said.
“I think to be a true champion you have to win many world titles and continually look at what you can do to become better than you are.”
Llewellyn enjoys coaching and motivational speaking.
She speaks mainly at schools and at the Queensland Government Active Girls women in sport breakfast seminars which are targeted at schoolgirls, teachers and parents who are interested in becoming more actively involved in sport.
Llewellyn said it took years for her to believe in herself and her message to young surfers was to keep at it.
She won seven events on the world circuit last year and spent seven months overseas.
Last month she guided Australia to victory at the International Surfing Association World Surfing Games at Huntington Beach, California.
Her gold medal in the women’s bodyboard final secured back-to-back ISA team titles for Australia who finished the tournament on 15,848 points, ahead of runners-up Brazil on 15,123 and the United States third on 14,505.
* THE GOLD Coast was the big winner when triathlete Emma Snowsill and boxer Sharon Anyos took the top honours at the Queensland Sportswoman of the Year Awards.
Three-time world champion Snowsill became the first triathlete to win the coveted Sportswoman of the Year title in the 14-year history of the awards and world champion Anyos received a standing ovation when she was announced the winner of the People’s Choice Award.
Daphne Pirie was another worthy Gold Coast winner. The 74-year-old was presented with the inaugural contribution to sport award.
