The Return of the Bodyboard Queen

10 years later, Alexandra Rinder makes a major comeback winning the World Champion title again

Let’s put it into perspective. The ArcelorMittal Wahine Bodyboarding Pro 2025. Serra, Brazil. The destination stop on the IBC Woman’s World Tour. The type of pressure where careers are forged, or destroyed. And in a heaving line, a ghost from the contest’s not-so-distant past appears. Alexandria Rinder, the former child-empress of bodyboarding, coming back to reclaim a throne she hasn't occupied in ten years. And reclaim it she did.

In a win as sweet as it surely had to have been written into a feel-good sports film script, Las Palmas de Gran Carina pro bodyboarder Rinder has done the impossible. A decade after her last world title, with a breathtaking demonstration of undeniable, generational ability that reminded all of us of the sort of performer she is, she is the Woman’s World Bodyboarding Champion again. For a third time. Let that sink in. A decade. In sporting terms, that is forever.

Who is Alexandra Rinder? To the young surfers of the world watching, she's the 2025 champion. To the rest of us with memories longer than a TikTok, she is the benchmark. Born to Austrian-German parents in 1998, Rinder was a phenom who started bodyboarding at nine years old and was on the pro circuit at age twelve. And then, in 2014, she dropped a bomb on the entire scene: at age sixteen, the youngest world champion the sport has ever known. She retained in 2015 for good measure, a force of nature teenager who seemed destined to reign for years.

Which is why she was welcomed back this season with a mix of fascination and awe. Could she still hang? The answer doled out over the course of a season built towards that $45,000 winner-takes-all showdown in Brazil with players from ten nations, was a resounding YES.

Speaking to the media after the finals, Rinder, now 27, told the press “I was really feeling strong after this first contest this year but I was not expecting to win again.” she admitted. “ I wanted to come back, of course.  And baby, I'm back. Ten years after, a decade after. A little bit more mature, still same as stupid as back then.”

That line is it. It captures why this win resonates, especially among female surfers. Rinder is not a champion but a symbol of enduring dedication. It's a story of rewriting your story, proof of life experience, that the shot of adulthood can be a benefit, not a burden. The “still same stupid” is the spark, the raw enthusiasm that brings people out to sea. And it's a lesson to every girl in line; your life is your own.

Alexandra Rinder’s return is not just a sentimental comeback; its history. From the youngest champion in history to taking the crown back a decade later, she has put an entire generation into context with her own style of excellence. This is not just about winning a trophy. It was about showing that greatness, like an unblemished reef break, is ageless. Baby, she's back indeed. And the whole game is better for it.