Erin Brooks looks out from Velzyland Beach on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. Born in Texas, she aims to compete for Canada at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.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.
At Pipe that December morning, long before the blaze of sunrise, a couple dozen surfers were already bobbing in the water. Many of themThere 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.
Erin's family has called Hawaii home for six years, but now she spends much of the year travelling for competitions in places like Tahiti, Indonesia and the Maldives. 'Will Erin look back and wish she had a normal childhood? At 15, she has a full-time job,' says her mother, Michelle. She made the men’s finals, knocking off some of the world’s most eminent surfers, including her mentor, big-wave legend Shane Dorian.
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 see crazy potential in her,” Dorian told The Globe and Mail from his living room in Pupukea, a short walk from Pipeline,
“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.” Erin has learned to play by the prison rules that dictate at Pipe’s tightly packed take-off area. Some don’t appreciate her aggression. “I’m just trying to do my job – calm down,” she told a man who felt she had taken his wave. On a typical day, there might be one woman out there, and 100 men. The difficulty and danger imbue the hallowed break with a kind of nobility.
Her start, at the age of 9, is considered late by surfing standards. Most surfers are on boards by 4. “I had to work my butt off to catch up,” Erin explains. “I’d surf at dawn every day before school, paddling out at dark, and then I’d surf after school, as well.”
The article should clarify how Erin Brooks qualifies as “Canadian”.
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