“Make today so awesome … that yesterday gets jealous.”
Off to Hawaii
Aotearoa Women’s Surfing Association recently offered an incredible opportunity of a scholarship from the Carissa Moore Foundation, where one girl aged between 11 and 16 would win the chance of a lifetime to go to Hawaii later in the year to train for a week with Carissa and other girls from Bali, Fiji, Tahiti and Australia. Carissa Kainani Moore is an American professional surfer and the 2011, 2013 and 2015 WSL Women’s World Tour Champion. To enter I had to complete a video answering some questions as well as doing my Pepeha, singing a Waiata, and talking about the Te Ao Maori values that I weaved into my surfing and why. I put a lot of time and effort into really thinking through and recording my answers. I learnt a lot while doing the entry and this was so rewarding in itself. I also can’t thank my coaches Jarrod Hancox and Chris Luke enough for their kind words on the video in support of my application. It was a nervous couple of weeks waiting for the results as I knew there were some really talented girls that entered.
On Friday I went to Waitara for a surf before dinner and when I arrived I was surprised by one of the judges with a Hawaiian flower leis and the amazing news that I had been selected to receive the scholarship. I am so excited to have been given this opportunity and can’t wait to travel to Hawaii to meet and train with Carissa and the other girls. It will be such an incredible opportunity to learn new skills that will help me with my surfing in the future!
Christchurch tragedy
I was really excited to go to Christchurch for the New Brighton Duke Festival of Surfing and the first day started really well with good fun waves and I advanced through my heat in the U18 Girls. We went back to the house we were staying at until my next heat later in the day, but just as we were heading back everything changed within a split second and we went into lockdown in the library. I was scared and didn’t have much idea of what had just happened. When we found out about the awful attacks on the two mosques, I couldn’t believe this had happened in New Zealand and my heart goes out to all the families affected. The competition was called o for the rest of the day and we spent a very quiet evening listening to the updates and helicopters flying overhead. After a restless night all the competitors and families met on the New Brighton beach for a Karakia and a minutes’ silence before starting the comp again. To catch up the organisers ran three arenas, which took a huge amount of organising. Unfortunately I didn’t make it through in the U20 Girls but I progressed to the finals of both the U18 and U16 divisions. Sunday was finals day and unfortunately the surf was small, soft with an onshore wind making it really challenging. I finished with 3rd places in both divisions.
Local news
This month I was featured in NZ Surfing Magazine for their Rising Grom article. It was a really amazing opportunity and it bought back some pretty cool memories while answering the questions, from starting out as a little Grom in Levin, all the fun opportunities I’ve had over the past 5 years, through to where I am today. A big thank you to Cory Scott and NZ Surfing Magazine for giving me this opportunity and to everyone for their support after reading the article.
