How and when did you get into surfing?
My family basically is surfing. There are 7 brothers in my dad’s family and all of them surf, along with all their kids. My mom’s side of the family also has the surfing gene. So basically I had no choice, I was inevitably going to be a surfer too. My parents had me in the water and on a board as soon as I could swim, but being uncompromisingly independent I refused to surf--until I was 15. Surfing was what everyone did and I wanted to do my own thing. Eventually I came around though, realizing that on a small island surrounded by water, there really isn’t much else to do.

What was the typical day like as a grom?
Our daily routine when we weren’t in school was to get up at 7 to check the surf. These were the old days when you physically had to go to the ocean to know what the surf was doing; there was none of this Internet forecasting stuff. Then we’d usually go out in front of my dad’s, near Pinetrees, since that’s where we stashed our boards. After our first session we’d walk into town for lunch, then grab our boards and walk to the pier and paddle out to The Bay. Three hours later, exhausted and covered in rash almost to the point of bleeding, we would drag ourselves back home and collapse on the porch, where my dad would have dinner cooking. Oh, I miss that life!

How was the contest scene when you were a grom?
When I was young, there were only a handful of girls who surfed, and most of us longboarded. There would be only one heat of the same 5 or 6 girls in every contest, so we were always stoked when kids would fly over from other islands. I’m envious now when I see how easy it is for kids here to just throw their boards in the car and drive anywhere for a comp. If there was a contest on another island it was always such a hassle to buy tickets, pack up boards, and find rides on the other islands, but I guess it made it a bit more exciting too.

How do you think the scene has changed?
I’m aware that female longboarders are probably the lowest members of the surfing hierarchy, maybe coming in slightly before boogie boarders. On Kauai when I was young we got away with it because there were only a few of us, but today all the girls have succumbed to what is “cool”- being a shortboarder- I don’t blame them. In the couple of years after I moved to Santa Barbara, my dad would call me from Pinetrees and tell me, “There are a hundred little girls at the right out front!” I figured it was a gross exaggeration, but when I went back to Kauai the last couple of times, I was shocked at how the grom scene over there has exploded. And they’re all phenomenal surfers! I guess with so much older talent, each generation pushes the next to go bigger and better. It just makes me wonder where it’s going to be 10 years from now.