Ella Williams realises she's living out her dream. But she's not content to sleep on it.

The 20-year-old from Whangamata is one of the world's best young surfers. But at the moment, it's a young women's sport - and Williams has a way to go until she reaches the crest of the wave.

Ella Williams is working hard on fine-tuning her technique. Photo: Steve Robertson/ASP.

Williams won the world junior title near the end of 2013 and was quickly touted as the next big thing.

But she'll head into 2016 still seeking a spot on the Women's Championship Tour, where the elite reside.

'I do think how lucky I am to be doing what I always dreamed of doing,” Williams says.

'It's what I've wanted for so long,”

As an eight-year-old, she scrawled on a surf poster that she wanted to be a world champion and hung it on her bedroom wall.

'It's a pretty awesome thing to be able to say you had this dream, you followed it and achieved it, and now you're achieving more than you probably ever thought you could - most of the days I'm very grateful for that.”

She kept that dream throughout school too.

'I wasn't very good at maths or science ... or any of those sort of things,” she laughed.

'I loved sport. I loved doing PE. I would literally sit through maths looking out the window waiting for PE to start - I just wanted to get outside, run around and play sport.”

Now she's discovering how tough sport at the highest level can be.

Williams had to be in the top six of the World Surf League women's rankings this year to make next year's Championship Tour.

She finished 29th.

'I haven't probably got the greatest results I've wanted after 2013, but I've gained a lot of experience and knowledge,” she says.

'It is a tough little group to get into - but once you're in there, you're sweet.

'So qualifying for me next year is huge.”

Williams admitted to being disappointed with her overall results in 2015.

'I know in myself I can do it.

'I have the surfing potential, but it's just bringing it all together - surfing my heats smartly, not making mistakes, fine-tuning those little things.”

It's a small pool Williams is endeavouring to break in to - there's just 17 women full-time on the elite tour.

'I'm hoping in the next few years they can at least open it up to 25 or 30.

'The girls on the tour probably wouldn't want that obviously,” she smiled, 'but I think it'd be great for the sport and for girls surfing.”

Williams has had a small taste of the top level in the past, with a wildcard entry to a Championship event in Fiji.

'It was just crazy how much I learnt in two 25-minute heats.

'Being against that next level pushed me - so I can imagine what it would be like if I was on that tour for a year.

'I know I will get there eventually - I don't want to say a specific time.”

Despite being just 20, in women's surfing terms at present that's seen as middle-aged.

'There's a lot of younger girls on tour, a lot that are 19 or 20, and I think the oldest may be Steph Gilmore at 27 maybe.”

She did have her triumphs this year too - as part of the New Zealand team at the World Surfing Games in Nicaragua, Williams won a bronze medal in the open women's class.

'That's like our Olympic Games and I got a medal there,” she beamed.

To make the improvements she needs, Williams has been working in Australia with coach Martin Dunn on technical and mental aspects 'so when I get to that heat and that 25 minutes, I do make it happen”.

'He's a surf-specific coach; helps with my technique, a few mental things, heat strategies. His son [Ben] was on the world tour - so he's got a lot of knowledge and experience.”

Williams will often do an early morning gym session, but if the waves are there, she's in the surf as often as possible.

'I did eight hours one day last week, six on another. I fully surfed last week - and the best training for surfing is surfing.”

Yet it's rare for Williams to now spend any length of the time in New Zealand - with 15 competitions taking her away 'for 11 months of the year”.

It's an expensive business - and one that can be draining mentally.

'I'm so grateful to my family, they stick with me through thick and thin and are with me 100 per cent.

'I couldn't do it without them.”

Principal sponsors SkyNext get a big thank-you too: 'They've been amazing”.

'I think it's awesome that I've been able to travel to so many amazing places - places I'd probably never have thought to go to otherwise.”

And she alternates trips with mum Janine or dad Dean as her companion.

'The fact that I get to do it with my family is so great - I love every moment we have together.

'It's not the easiest at times, living out of a suitcase, and you can be away for three or four months at a time - you do get a little homesick.

'So I love coming back to New Zealand - it's a beautiful place.”

The biggest surfing story of 2015 came in South Africa in July, when Australian Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark.

Does Williams ever ponder that may happen to her?

'I think it crosses my mind most when I'm surfing by myself.

'Every person that's in the ocean, I think it crosses their mind. But it is their home - we are going into their territory.

'Half the time they are there and you just don't see them,” she says - cue Jaws theme music.

Williams says there can be vast differences in the standard of living at the places she competes.

'In Nicaragua, you're walking down the street on mud roads with pigs running next to you.”

But surfing is very similar throughout the world - and that's where she's always at home.

'When you're in the water, everything else around you becomes immune.

'You forget about everything else - it's just you, the water and the waves.”