Introducing from Tenerife, Teresa Padilla Miranda.

When you think of Tenerife you picture sharp reefs made up of uneven volcanic rock, not for the faint hearted.

Warm crystal clear waters so you can see every potential threat coming your way and waves that carry so much power you need to know what your about.

Put that to one side, remove all the stigma of a male dominated contest scene and you are left with Teresa Padilla Miranda.

In Mirandas own words.....

"I am 17 years old and from Tenerife, Canary Islands and it is still my home.

I have been practicing bodyboarding since I was 12 years old. All of my family already surfed or body boarded so it just seemed natural that I would follow them.

My main influence was from my aunt who showed me bodyboarding and goes with me to the championships that I love taking part in.

Since I started I have met some incredible people and every day that I go to the beach, I go with the same personal motivation.

I also have a brother that loves to bodyboard and he joins me always at the beach.

I think that thanks to him I have achieved many wins and incredible results because he constantly pushes me both in fitness and competition style, I feel very lucky.

My idols have always been Alexandra Rinder, Diego Cabrera and Jeff Hubbard. However the riders who I learn from every day are my brother and local riders like Álvaro Padrón and Moi Dorta , watching them bodyboard helps me develop my style.

My favourite break at home is El Socorro, a beach break that you can surf any day of the year it is very near my home in Los Realejos.

My favourite wave however is El Frontón in Gran Canaria.

The first board I ever had was a Tribord board that my aunt gave me for my 7th Birthday. When I was 7 thou I could barely catch waves because I saw the waves and they were too big for me so I was really scared.

I remember that I had a pair of fins that were too large for me and I waited until my feet grew into them which took almost two years.

I love competing and have a lot of time for anyone that has the same goals as me in the Canarian and Spanish championships and I always go with my family,mainly my brother and my aunt.

I started this year to compete on the APB Tour.

At the beginning of the year Alexandra Rinder encouraged me to go with her to theSintra Pro, however, I couldn´t go with her, nevertheless I really wanted to compete so I went to Madeira to compete in the Bodyboard Girls Experience. The event organization takes all the girls to visit the island in the days before the contest and we had some unbelievable times. It was there I won the junior contest (European contest) and I got a 3rd place in the open (World challenge).

In the Fronton King I was really nervous because it was only the day before that I surfed this wave for the first time.

Luckily the wave really suited me and I could do good maneuvers and got good scores. I caught some unforgettable waves and the experience was amazing and I ended up getting 3rd place.

Overall I ended up finishing the APB tour in 14th position which I was really excited about because I only did two thirds of the events that counted for the rankings.

I am currently a student and I am in my last year of high school, then next year I hope to go to university and study for a career.

I am supported by Science Canarias, Xcel Canarias, Quivers surf shop, Power on Longuera gym and Club Oleaje surf.

I hope to improve on last year by this year doing a minimum of 4 events on the APB tour and go into the TOP 5 in the tour ranking, that is my focus and i'm really excited and focused on making it happen.

Thanks LidLife for taking time to talk to me love what you guys are doing to feature riders."

Photo credits:

Carlos Padilla

Victor Pereyra

Oito Productions

Quique Padilla

Next week we head back to Australia where we are lucky to be featuring our youngest rider to date at just 7 years old, yes 7.

A definite star of the future Jaxon Cruickshank.

Some exciting news soon we will be releasing some stock for sale through some of our favourite retailers around the globe in the not to distant future of course we will keep you updated but heres a little taster of a couple of bits.......