{"id":595381,"date":"2026-04-09T09:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:49:08","slug":"australian-isabella-nichols-defeats-carissa-moore-at-bells-beach-wsl-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595381\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Isabella Nichols defeats Carissa Moore at Bells Beach WSL opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Defending champion Isabella Nichols has held her nerve against surfing great Carissa Moore to join Molly Picklum as the only Australians left standing at Bells Beach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Nichols (16.27 points) was patient in quiet conditions at Winkipop on Thursday as five-time world champion and new mother Moore (15.07) \u2014 back on the World Surf League tour after two years \u2014 made the early running at the season-opener.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But Nichols, who had a first-round bye as part of the new Championship Tour format, picked her moments in a pulsating finale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She scored an 8.50-point ride but then faltered on a second wave (4.50) to seemingly hand the heat to Moore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But Nichols surged clear with a powerful 7.77-point effort in the final minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">That was the first of a two-wave set. Moore caught the latter and scored 7.90 in a mesmerising exchange to fall just short of a quarterfinal berth in the American&#8217;s anticipated competitive return.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-04-01\/molly-picklum-admit-t-list-ahead-of-world-title-defence\/106518446\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The list that helps Aussie surfing star handle the noise in her head<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Reigning world surfing champion Molly Picklum kicks her off title defence this week at Bells Beach, where writing a list may form part of her preparation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;It was full throttle, 100 per cent \u2026 you know you can&#8217;t make mistakes, especially with how slow it was out there,&#8221; Nichols said of the relatively placid conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;You have to pick the right waves \u2026 I find it quite enjoyable, like a chess match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;She&#8217;s [Moore] my idol. What she&#8217;s done, having a baby and coming back, is just so inspiring and she&#8217;s freaking ripping, so props to her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It was Nichols&#8217;s first heat in the ninth day of the competition window at Bells Beach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Competition was abruptly halted after defending world champion Picklum progressed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I was a little bit concerned, it felt awkward and was thankful we got called off yesterday \u2026 it was meant to be and I took it as a sign,&#8221; Nichols said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Adrenaline is a wild thing, I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll feel something this afternoon but it&#8217;s all go from here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I know I can push it to the limit, so bring it on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Nichols has drawn Caitlin Simmers in the quarterfinals, with competition likely to continue on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Picklum will meet Lakey Peterson for a spot in the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defending champion Isabella Nichols has held her nerve against surfing great Carissa Moore to join Molly Picklum as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,286840,290647,41995,113318,85,24490,290646,6339],"class_list":{"0":"post-595381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bells-beach","11":"tag-carissa-moore","12":"tag-molly-picklum","13":"tag-pro","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-surfing","16":"tag-world-suef-league","17":"tag-wsl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}