Keely Andrew grew up in Mooloolaba, a tiny resort town on Australia’s Sunshine Coast where being in the ocean daily is nearly demanded. With two brothers luring her into the surf, she got started with her wave riding at age five, but while she fell immediately for surfing it was hardly her only interest.

Her brothers got her into all kinds of other sports, and she played many of them well through her school years. By the time she was 16, she was hitting high levels in both tennis and surfing. Her tennis coach was a huge fan of her optimistic attitude and work ethic and figured she was on a path to the pros, but that’s right when Keely’s parents made her pick one and stick with it. Keely had just finished runner-up in the Australian Junior Titles at the time, so surfing won out.

Her story is very similar to several of her peers on the Championship Tour. Sally Fitzgibbons, Courtney Conlogue, and Lakey Peterson all excelled as multi-sport athletes, and it’s safe to say Keely shares their same brand of gritty drive and determination, and she’s blending it with her surfing style that’s polished and precise. The faster the wave, the more dangerous she becomes.

After finishing the 2014 Qualifying Season at No. 9 she earned a replacement entry into the Oi Rio Pro in 2015, where she beat Tyler Wright, Coco Ho and Johanne Defay on her way to a Quarterfinal finish in her first-ever CT event. She ended her first full year on tour on a high note in 2016, knocking out Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons on her way to a third-place finish at Honolua Bay.

And in 2017 she made several trips to the Quarterfinals, but her highpoint came at Trestles, where she topped Tyler Wright, Sage Erickson, and Courtney Conlogue on her way to her first CT Final. She finished the season ranked No. 11, her career-best, but despite another Final on the Gold Coast at the start of 2018, she has found it difficult to maintain a high level of CT consistency.

In 2018 and 2019 her QS form meant she maintained her spot on the CT, but she knows that if she can sustain the type of surfing that has seen her beat the world’s best, her trajectory will clearly head north.