Canada’s surf prodigy pushes the sport to new heights ahead of Olympics

Canada’s surf prodigy pushes the sport to new heights ahead of Olympics

Driving north across the Hawaiian island of Oahu from Honolulu can feel like a bit like journeying back through time. Far from Waikiki’s towering hotels, manicured beaches and Chanel outlets, the freeway suddenly ends, giving way to the sand-dusted Kamehameha Highway. The Kam wends along Oahu’s North Shore, a lush, laid-back place locals call “the country.”

Early one morning in December, barefoot kids carrying still-wet surfboards walked the serpentine road behind Ehukai Beach in a line. A woman cycled past on an e-bike, a golden retriever perched upright on her seat, the dog’s big, white paws draped over the handlebars.

This secluded, sometimes strange shore also happens to be the white-hot nexus of the surf universe – dubbed the Seven-Mile Miracle for the several dozen exquisite surf spots it boasts.

Starting in December, the North Shore’s epic winter swells lure surfers the way the Silicon Valley does coders, or Wall Street does quants.

When the waves are breaking just right at Ehukai Park’s Pipeline – the North Shore’s hallowed heart – the water heaves up higher than a two-story building. The lip curls so cleanly it creates the aquamarine tunnels that surfers charge through, a paradisiacal experience known as barrelling.

At Pipe that December morning, long before the blaze of sunrise, a couple dozen surfers were already bobbing in the water. Many of them would be familiar to surfers around the world.

There went Italian great Leo Fioravanti, shaking the water from his brown hair as he stepped ashore with a board shattered by a wave. Nearby, Hawaii’s Carissa Moore – arguably the best female surfer in history – was playing with her two small dogs in the sand. Soul surfer Mikey February was munching on a pastry from Ted’s Bakery.

In the thick of the boil sat Canada’s next superstar athlete, 15-year-old Erin Brooks – there to carve a space of her own among the world’s greats.

The Texas-born phenom with Quebec roots, also a talented skateboarder, is a medal contender at next year’s Paris Olympics, where she will surf for Canada.

“I just want to push women’s surfing. That’s all I wanna do,” Erin says. “Just try to be the best surfer that I can be. And show everyone that girls can do it better than guys.”

Erin is seen as a transformative figure in the sport, both for her propensity to huck giant airs, and to surf waves that have traditionally been the preserve of men.

When, at 13, she landed a near-perfect 360-degree rotation in competition, Stab Mag, the iconic surfing rag, asked whether it was “The Best Air Ever Done by a Female Surfer?” The teen is already earning more than most of Canada’s top female athletes, thanks to lucrative sponsorship deals with brands such as Red Bull, Rip Curl and Dakine.

Last August, Erin made history at the invite-only Padang Padang Cup in Bali. She paddled out for the men’s competition, becoming was the first woman – and youngest person – to compete in the event.

She made the men’s finals, knocking off some of the world’s most eminent surfers, including her mentor, big-wave legend Shane Dorian.

After taking fourth place in the final round, Erin won the inaugural women’s competition, cementing her place as one of the world’s best barrel riders.

“Every time I go out there I just want to show everyone that I can do it even though I’m small. My Dad always says that little people can do big things.”

From the moment she first learned to surf, all Erin has ever wanted to do was “surf like a guy,” her dad, Jeff Brooks, explains. “She didn’t do tea parties and doll houses. She wanted to smash things and jump off things.”

The first time Brooks took her to a skate park she stayed for eight hours. “She was black and blue by the end. She just has no give up. If she sees a boy do something, she thinks: I can too.”

“I see crazy potential in her,” Dorian told The Globe and Mail from his living room in Pupukea, a short walk from Pipeline, where he was nursing a back injury. “I think she could take women’s surfing to a totally different place, and spearhead a new and exciting chapter in the sport.”

He explains: “There hasn’t really been a generation of girls coming up that really tried to push it above the lip. They’ve never needed to.” Erin, he noted, grew up skating and surfing with a crew of “little ripper boys,” that include his son Jackson, another towheaded wunderkind, and Erin’s closest friend.

The heady progression of the women’s sport is being driven by young chargers such as Erin, who also excel on concrete, perfecting rotations on halfpipes before transposing them to water.

“There is no reason girls can’t do airs,” Dorian says. “There is no physical difference between girls and boys. You’ve just got to be willing to try billions. And not give up.”

Source: theglobeandmail.com