Keala Kennelly
| Keala Kennelly | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born |
August 13, 1978 (age 37) Kauai, Hawaii |
| Surfing career | |
| Major achievements | Two-time winner of Billabong Pro in Teahupoo; 2003 ASP Women's WCT Runner Up; 2003 Triple Crown Winner; Two-time winner of Billabong XXL Girls Performance Award; 2013 Inductee, Surfing Walk of Fame & Actions Sports Hall of Fame |
| Surfing specifications | |
| Stance | goofy |
| Favorite waves | Teahupoo |
Keala Kennelly (born August 13, 1978) is a professional surfer, surfer DJ, and actress from Kauai, Hawaii. After spending a decade ranked in the top 10 on the ASP World Championship Tour (WCT), Kennelly took a break from the tour in 2007 to explore her passions for acting and music. She is now pursuing careers as a DJ and actress while continuing her surfing career as a Big Wave surfer for Billabong.
Surfing career
Kennelly turned professional at age 17 and soon began surfing in the World Qualifying Series (WQS). After finishing 2nd in the world on the WQS Tour in 1997, she was accepted to the World Championship Tour and quickly began earning victories at some of the tour's biggest events. Kennelly began a string of successful visits to Teahupoo, Tahiti in 2000 when she won the Gallaz Women's Pro. She would go on to win twice more in Teahupoo in 2002 and 2003.
2003 was a breakout year for Kennelly as she peaked at number 1 in the WCT rankings before ending the year ranked as the 2nd best female surfer in the world. In addition to her win in Teahupoo at the Billabong Pro, she garnered victories at the Roxy Pro in Fiji and the Turtle Bay Pro in Hawaii as well as a 3rd-place finish at the Maui Billabong Pro. Her various top finishes won Kennelly the year's coveted Triple Crown. Kennelly maintained a spot in the top 10 of the ASP rankings through 2007, with numerous top finishes and groundbreaking female performances. This included a 2nd-place finish at the Billabong Pro Maui, a team gold medal at the 2007 Summer X Games, and a record-setting ride in 2005 as the first ever woman to tow in at Teahupoo.
After leaving the World Championship Tour in 2007 to pursue acting, Kennelly returned to surfing as a professional freesurfer. She continued to make history for female surfing when she won the first women's big wave contest at the Nelscott Big Wave Classic in 2010, opening the door for more female big wave surfing competitions in the future. Later that year, Kennelly had a tow-in at Puerto Escondido that is considered to be arguably the best barrel by a female to date.
In 2011, Kennlly chased one of the biggest swells to ever hit Teahupoo. During that infamous 'Code Red' swell, she displayed the best barrel riding by a female at Teahupoo. Three days later while riding in a memorial heat for Andy Irons during the Billabong Pro Men's WCT, Kennelly suffered a massive facial injury. After getting barreled, she was pushed down to Teahupoo's notoriously shallow reef and received a severe gash to the side of her face.
Kennelly's accomplishments have garnered her numerous accolades, including being named the 2002 Female Surfer of the Year by ESPN and more recently, the 2011 and '13 Billabong XXL Girls Performance Award. She was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame as that year's Woman of the Year in 2013; the Walk is in Huntington Beach, California.[1] In 2016 she won the Pure Scot Barrel of the Year Award at the Big Wave Awards, which makes her the first woman to win in any open-gender category at those awards.[2]
Acting career
Kennelly began her acting career with a role in the 2002 film, Blue Crush, and later landed a recurring role on the HBO series, John From Cincinnati. She has also been featured in the documentaries, 7 Girls, and Step Into Liquid.
DJ career
Following her role on John From Cincinnati, Kennelly began touring the world to pursue her music career as a DJ. She has played shows in Spain, Brazil, France, Australia, the UK, South Africa, and several US cities. This includes Las Vegas, where she opened for Snoop Dogg at the Sony PlayStation 14th Annual Gran Turismo Awards.
TEDx Malibu
On December 3, 2013, at TEDx Malibu, Keala gave a presentation on desire and surfing: "I'm Keala Kennelly and I'm a surfer."[3]
Personal life
She is openly lesbian.[4]