Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 270. Brianna Cope, Pro Surfer

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270. Brianna Cope, Pro Surfer · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Things go bad, there's always a silver lining, even if
0:02
Speaker 1: you don't see it at the time.
0:18
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Emily, a body here.
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Speaker 3: You are listening to episode two hundred and seventy of Hurdle,
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Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I connect with everyone from
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Speaker 3: your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about
0:30
Speaker 3: their highest hies, toughest moments, and everything in between. We
0:35
Speaker 3: all go through hurdles in life, and my goal through
0:37
Speaker 3: these discussions is to empower you to better navigate yours
0:40
Speaker 3: and move with intention so that you can stride towards
0:43
Speaker 3: your own big potential and of course, have some fun
0:47
Speaker 3: along the way. For today's episode, I am chatting with
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Speaker 3: Brianna Cope. She is a pro surfer that from the
0:55
Speaker 3: outside looking in, totally has it all.
0:58
Speaker 2: She's absolutely stunning, super athletic.
1:01
Speaker 3: She lives in a picturesque place in Hawaii, and she
1:05
Speaker 3: is truly loving her life immersed in sport. But in
1:09
Speaker 3: today's episode, Brianna gets real. She talks about enduring teasing, bullying,
1:15
Speaker 3: and really struggling with self image because of a deformed
1:19
Speaker 3: left hand and irreversible birth defect that took her parents
1:23
Speaker 3: and doctors by surprise Brianna shares with me her journey
1:28
Speaker 3: to self love and when she finally got to a
1:31
Speaker 3: place where she didn't feel as though she needed to
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Speaker 3: hide her hand any more. This episode is drenched, absolutely
1:39
Speaker 3: drenched in themes of self acceptance and where there is
1:44
Speaker 3: a will, there is truly a way. Today, Brianna is
1:48
Speaker 3: determined to live by example, to be proud of who
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Speaker 3: she is, the woman that she's become, and the tnasy
1:55
Speaker 3: that it has taken to rise above the physical challenges,
2:00
Speaker 3: the emotional challenges that go hand in hand with something
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Speaker 3: that you cannot change in pursuit of your dreams, in
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Speaker 3: her case, becoming a champion surfer. Now, Brianna also has
2:10
Speaker 3: another really big goal on deck, towing the starting line
2:14
Speaker 3: for her first ever marathon, the New York Marathon here
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Speaker 3: on November fifth. I'm so excited to be able to
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Speaker 3: cheer her on in person and fun fact, you can
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Speaker 3: actually join. Brianna and Strava and my friends are together
2:29
Speaker 3: and me all weekend long. New York City Marathon weekend
2:33
Speaker 3: at the lat Radio at the corner of Nasa and
2:36
Speaker 3: Banker Street in Brooklyn, right by mccaron Park, Williamsburg Prime location.
2:41
Speaker 3: We're doing a shakeout on Saturday, November fourth.
2:45
Speaker 2: That shakeout starts.
2:46
Speaker 3: At nine thirty am and then at eleven am, I'm
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Speaker 3: going to be hosted a panel discussion with three badass
2:53
Speaker 3: women to talk about their personal journeys to the New
2:55
Speaker 3: York City start line and what they've learned from this
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Speaker 3: experience and from each other. It's going to be super
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Speaker 3: inspiring and I really hope to see you there.
3:04
Speaker 2: Trust me, this might be exactly what you need.
3:06
Speaker 3: To garner the inspiration to go after your next big goal.
3:10
Speaker 3: The link to RSVP to this shakeout, to the panel
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Speaker 3: discussion again. That's on Saturday, November fourth at the Lot Radio.
3:18
Speaker 2: It's in the show notes.
3:19
Speaker 3: You can also get more information by joining the Together
3:22
Speaker 3: club on Strava. Again as a reminder, that's t O
3:26
Speaker 3: g E T h x R. Make sure you're following
3:30
Speaker 3: along with Hurdle. That's over on social media at Hurdle
3:33
Speaker 3: Podcast and I'm over at Emily Abadi Plus. Subscribe to
3:37
Speaker 3: the weekly Hurdle newsletter that links in the show notes
3:39
Speaker 3: as well. By doing that absolutely free, you can get
3:42
Speaker 3: a lot of the same inspiration, motivation, things that you
3:45
Speaker 3: love about the show directly in your inbox every single Friday.
3:49
Speaker 3: And with that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling. Today,
3:58
Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Brianna Cope. She is a
4:01
Speaker 3: pro surfer. How are you doing today, Brianna?
4:04
Speaker 4: I'm good. How are you?
4:06
Speaker 2: I'm good.
4:06
Speaker 3: I'm honored because I've listened to you on the only
4:10
Speaker 3: one other podcast you've ever done. But this is about
4:13
Speaker 3: to be so epic because it's your real true foray,
4:17
Speaker 3: I would say into the medium.
4:19
Speaker 4: For sure, I'm really excited.
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Speaker 1: I was super nervous what I was telling you earlier,
4:22
Speaker 1: but I'm really excited and thank you for having me
4:24
Speaker 1: on here. I think I am your first pro surfer,
4:26
Speaker 1: So I'm really honored.
4:27
Speaker 3: You're well, No, I don't want to burst your bubble,
4:31
Speaker 3: but I know you guys are cool. So it's okay
4:34
Speaker 3: that I tell you that Carissa More has been on
4:36
Speaker 3: the show.
4:36
Speaker 1: See, Okay, Well that's a good person to have so
4:39
Speaker 1: she can have a title.
4:40
Speaker 4: Okay, it's okay.
4:42
Speaker 2: It's okay, it's okay.
4:43
Speaker 3: It was fascinating to talk to her because candidly, I mean,
4:46
Speaker 3: I grew up in Connecticut.
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Speaker 2: I spend most of my time in the Northeast.
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Speaker 3: I have been to Hawaii, but I don't know a
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Speaker 3: whole lot about surfing, so it's always fun to hear
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Speaker 3: about it, to get the perspective and honestly just appreciate
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Speaker 3: such a different pace of life that you live there.
5:01
Speaker 1: For sure. We're definitely like, I love New York, but
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Speaker 1: it's the polar opposite of Hawaii, and like how I
5:05
Speaker 1: grew up. So every time I go there, I feel
5:07
Speaker 1: so alive and I'm like, this is amazing. And then
5:09
Speaker 1: when I come home, I go back to like being
5:11
Speaker 1: a turtle, I would say.
5:15
Speaker 2: A turtle. We appreciate turtling.
5:17
Speaker 3: Sometimes you've got a turtle to protect your energy and
5:19
Speaker 3: protect your mental health.
5:20
Speaker 1: Though for sure, definitely I can easily get over stimulated,
5:24
Speaker 1: so I need a turtle a lot.
5:26
Speaker 3: I like how we're making it into a verb. I
5:30
Speaker 3: want to be honest with you. When I was doing
5:33
Speaker 3: research on you, so I watched your Apple TV documentary
5:38
Speaker 3: that came out in twenty nineteen. It's called Surfing to Cope.
5:42
Speaker 3: Great play on words there, And in the documentary you
5:46
Speaker 3: talk about your birth effect and say that when googling,
5:50
Speaker 3: and we'll get into all of this. It's like the
5:53
Speaker 3: third thing that comes up and candidly that didn't happen
5:56
Speaker 3: for me. So it was actually quite interesting for me
5:59
Speaker 3: not to learn about that birth de fact until I
6:01
Speaker 3: watched the documentary.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think because that was a long time ago
6:06
Speaker 1: and I was a little younger and I was so
6:08
Speaker 1: shy about it, like that was the first time I
6:10
Speaker 1: ever spoken about my hand, Like previously, I always had
6:13
Speaker 1: it closed. And Kittie, the director of the show, was like,
6:16
Speaker 1: we should do this, and I was like, no, I
6:18
Speaker 1: don't think I'm ready. But honestly, it's like helped me
6:21
Speaker 1: so much talk about it and realize, like I think,
6:23
Speaker 1: when you're holding whatever in so deep in, you can
6:26
Speaker 1: never really be who you are.
6:28
Speaker 4: So I'm so glad that that happened.
6:30
Speaker 2: But it was.
6:30
Speaker 4: Definitely a hurdle, I would say, for sure.
6:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and understandably.
6:35
Speaker 3: So you talked about going through so much bullying at
6:40
Speaker 3: a young age because of your situation. For those that
6:44
Speaker 3: may not be familiar, talk to us a little bit
6:46
Speaker 3: about that so we can kind of dive in for sure.
6:48
Speaker 1: So I was born with like a small hand, So
6:51
Speaker 1: that's why I fell in love with surfing. It's like
6:53
Speaker 1: a full parallel to my life. But being born with
6:57
Speaker 1: something so different that people can like point out and
6:59
Speaker 1: make I think that's what really hit home for me,
7:01
Speaker 1: because I would just be like, why am I different?
7:03
Speaker 1: Where are these other kids? Like when I was a
7:05
Speaker 1: kid and I was home before I went to school,
7:07
Speaker 1: I thought I was normal, and then I was like, weird.
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Speaker 1: My parents have two hands, my sister has two hands,
7:13
Speaker 1: are so weird. And then when I went to school,
7:15
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, no, I'm the weird one.
7:17
Speaker 1: So I just over time, like and my kid photos,
7:20
Speaker 1: I would have my hand out and then over time
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Speaker 1: it would just be closed. So till I was about
7:25
Speaker 1: like eighteen, I just closed my hand always, and like
7:28
Speaker 1: actually still to this day, not that many people know this,
7:31
Speaker 1: but my hand like automatically kind of starts closing because
7:34
Speaker 1: it was closed for so long. Yeah, it just was
7:36
Speaker 1: a really I would say, the biggest blessing though. I'm
7:39
Speaker 1: so glad that I had something that like taught me
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Speaker 1: like to love myself and to be strong, because it's
7:46
Speaker 1: definitely what led me to surfing.
7:49
Speaker 3: Talking about it more often being closed, it's that muscle memory, right.
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Speaker 3: You spent so long trying to hide that and trying
7:56
Speaker 3: to make it appear in a certain way that now
8:00
Speaker 3: to this day, it's still just lingers in that form.
8:04
Speaker 1: For sure, and I think that like now I don't
8:07
Speaker 1: I make jokes about it, Like I have fun with it,
8:09
Speaker 1: and it is super meaningful because I've had a couple
8:12
Speaker 1: kids with the same hand as me reach out and
8:15
Speaker 1: like that's been the highlight of my whole career. Is
8:17
Speaker 1: like hearing them being like, oh, you inspire me, and
8:19
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, that's super special because I know what
8:22
Speaker 1: they're going through and that they have someone that has
8:24
Speaker 1: something similar that they can talk to, Like, it's what
8:26
Speaker 1: really makes me happy. So but yeah, it was definitely
8:29
Speaker 1: definitely a tough time.
8:30
Speaker 4: I have PTSD.
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Speaker 1: When I think about it, I'm like, oh, that's a
8:34
Speaker 1: rough rough time for me.
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Speaker 3: So when you say that time and you reflect about
8:38
Speaker 3: the most difficult period, would you say it was that
8:42
Speaker 3: elementary to middle school or do you believe that that
8:45
Speaker 3: really carried on with you as you got into your
8:46
Speaker 3: later teenage years.
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Speaker 1: I definitely think elementary through middle school was my hardest,
8:51
Speaker 1: and like I talked to my mom about it a lot.
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Speaker 1: She said that was the most that I would like
8:55
Speaker 1: go home and cry and that's like literally right after school,
8:57
Speaker 1: I would go into the water and I would surf
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Speaker 1: till dark and my parents would call me, and I
9:01
Speaker 1: would do it every single day because surfing was the
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Speaker 1: one place that no one asked me about my hand,
9:06
Speaker 1: no one bothered me, Like I just felt so whole
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Speaker 1: and like the ocean was like where I felt like
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Speaker 1: I belonged.
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Speaker 4: So I just spent all day there.
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Speaker 1: My parents would be like on the beach, like come in,
9:17
Speaker 1: like it's time to go. But till this day, I
9:19
Speaker 1: still run out to the water if I'm having a
9:21
Speaker 1: bad day, good day. I just feel like it's where
9:23
Speaker 1: I go to just be myself.
9:26
Speaker 3: Talk to me about your introduction to surfing and what
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Speaker 3: it was like for you at first getting into the water.
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Speaker 1: First off, like I was a water baby. All my
9:34
Speaker 1: baby photos, I'm like in the water floundering. I started
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Speaker 1: surfing because my older sister, Gabby, started surfing and I
9:39
Speaker 1: was four years old, and I asked if I could
9:41
Speaker 1: go with them, and my dad and sister were teaching
9:44
Speaker 1: me how to surf, and that's like my first memory
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Speaker 1: of surfing. And it's pretty funny because I've tried a
9:49
Speaker 1: bunch of other sports and I'm not good at them.
9:51
Speaker 1: And when I first tried surfing, obviously I was horrible,
9:54
Speaker 1: but like there was no other feeling that I wanted
9:56
Speaker 1: to keep going. Like when I would try like another
9:58
Speaker 1: spot and i'd fall I'd like, this is not fun,
10:00
Speaker 1: but surfing, I'd be like, I can't wait to try again.
10:02
Speaker 4: So I just fell in love with it at such
10:04
Speaker 4: a young age.
10:05
Speaker 3: Not to jump around too much, but you are trying
10:09
Speaker 3: out another sport right now, and that sport is running.
10:13
Speaker 2: I love it, so I can give you the same vibes.
10:16
Speaker 1: I love, love love running like I. So it's so
10:20
Speaker 1: funny because I've never been like a runner. I've never
10:23
Speaker 1: really ran like that far, and uh, this year, I've
10:27
Speaker 1: been like super into it and I realized it's made
10:29
Speaker 1: me feel like mentally better, physically better. And it was
10:32
Speaker 1: funny when I told everyone I was starting to run,
10:34
Speaker 1: like I wanted to run a few marathons. Everyone's like,
10:36
Speaker 1: don't do it. It's gonna be bad for your surfing.
10:38
Speaker 1: You can't you know, can't do two things. That's just
10:41
Speaker 1: not gonna be enough. And I was just like, no,
10:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it, and like I felt like I'm
10:45
Speaker 1: surfing way better. My cardial feels amazing. It's pretty I
10:49
Speaker 1: don't know, I really like it. Like if I don't
10:51
Speaker 1: go running, it's the same feeling that I get when
10:53
Speaker 1: I'm not surfing. I'm like a little more adhdal like
10:56
Speaker 1: I go, I gotta go, But I really like it.
10:59
Speaker 3: So you're experiences that the two actually intertwine and compliment
11:03
Speaker 3: each other quite well.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yes, because I was a little worried when I was
11:06
Speaker 1: hearing that, because I was like, oh, that doesn't They're like,
11:08
Speaker 1: your body's gonna like not get used to it. You know,
11:10
Speaker 1: it's bad on your knees. Like you hear all these
11:12
Speaker 1: things and you're like, okay, and surfing's already so hard
11:15
Speaker 1: on your knees because you're in weird positions. But I
11:17
Speaker 1: was like, no, I trained so much, like I have
11:18
Speaker 1: a very healthy body. I want to do this. So
11:21
Speaker 1: when I started training, I was like, wow, I feel
11:23
Speaker 1: really good, Like I feel a little more agile, like
11:25
Speaker 1: I felt like a little cheetah, and like watching my
11:28
Speaker 1: speed go up. Like at first I was running really
11:31
Speaker 1: slow for myself. I was running like eleven to twelve minutes,
11:34
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, this is taking me some
11:36
Speaker 1: times around a couple miles, and just seeing the progression
11:39
Speaker 1: has been like the coolest part for me. Like, I
11:41
Speaker 1: feel like there's little milestones that I've been hitting and
11:44
Speaker 1: I ran like a four mile at seven minutes and
11:47
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, and I was like wow. Over a few months,
11:50
Speaker 1: like the progression has been so fun.
11:52
Speaker 4: Even I remembered it.
11:53
Speaker 1: I'm like four four miles seven minutes, but it really
11:56
Speaker 1: it was so fun to see the progress.
11:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as you should be proud of that, right,
12:01
Speaker 3: That's such a great accomplishment. And the accomplishment also within itself,
12:05
Speaker 3: is showing up for yourself to try something that you
12:08
Speaker 3: had heard, all of these things, all of these preconceived
12:11
Speaker 3: notions that you had that you pushed to the side,
12:14
Speaker 3: and you said, you know what, I'm gonna try this
12:16
Speaker 3: for myself.
12:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
12:18
Speaker 1: I just I love putting myself out of my comfort zone.
12:21
Speaker 1: Like surfing is my comfort zone but running is not.
12:24
Speaker 1: So I just love trying something new and having it.
12:27
Speaker 1: I just feel like it's made my life way more positive.
12:29
Speaker 1: I've loved running with my friends. I've gotten like pretty
12:32
Speaker 1: much nine of my close friends that have never ran
12:35
Speaker 1: are all running now. So it's been really fun, Like,
12:37
Speaker 1: it's just cool to see my sister. She had like
12:39
Speaker 1: a bad foot, now she's running. She runs every day,
12:42
Speaker 1: So it's really fun to see everyone like come together.
12:44
Speaker 1: And that's why I love running in like the community
12:47
Speaker 1: because I feel like it's like surfing in the community.
12:49
Speaker 4: Everyone does it to uplift each other.
12:51
Speaker 3: To double click on what you said about feeling a
12:54
Speaker 3: little bit nervous, maybe to try something new. For someone
12:58
Speaker 3: listening to this who may be interested in trying something new,
13:02
Speaker 3: whether it is within sport or beyond sport, what advice
13:06
Speaker 3: would you offer to them to get over that introductory hurdle.
13:10
Speaker 4: It's so funny.
13:11
Speaker 1: It's gonna sound so cheesy, but I wanted to say,
13:14
Speaker 1: just go for it, like if you're trying, you're not
13:17
Speaker 1: feeling if you were to be like no, I'm too scared,
13:19
Speaker 1: or like, oh I don't want to run, I'm too slow,
13:20
Speaker 1: or whatever I was thinking to myself, Like I just
13:24
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I'm going to try this
13:25
Speaker 1: and do my best.
13:26
Speaker 4: And that's what I've done.
13:27
Speaker 1: And I think everyone should just try something that's out
13:29
Speaker 1: of their comfort zone because you grow and you learn
13:31
Speaker 1: and you realize how you talk to yourself Like that
13:34
Speaker 1: was a big one for me. When I was running,
13:35
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, there's a lot of mental dialogue
13:37
Speaker 1: going on here that I maybe should be attention to
13:40
Speaker 1: or see how I'm feeling. And yeah, I think that
13:44
Speaker 1: if you want to try it, just just.
13:45
Speaker 2: Go for it. Just go for it.
13:47
Speaker 3: Interesting that you took note of the mental dialogue in
13:51
Speaker 3: running in that way. Do you not feel as though that, say,
13:54
Speaker 3: mental dialogue comes into play within surfing or do you
13:57
Speaker 3: believe that now you've been surfing for so long that
14:00
Speaker 3: maybe it's not as apparent.
14:02
Speaker 1: For sure, Like that, I feel like for surfing, it's
14:05
Speaker 1: my happy place and where I feel like myself, so
14:07
Speaker 1: nothing really goes on into my head.
14:09
Speaker 4: I feel so free.
14:10
Speaker 1: But running, you know, I'm definitely out of my comfort zone.
14:13
Speaker 1: I'm pushing myself. It's it's a different type of like
14:16
Speaker 1: tired and surfing. I can surf for eight hours and
14:18
Speaker 1: be like that was a great day. If I ran
14:20
Speaker 1: for eight hours, you would probably not see me for
14:22
Speaker 1: a week.
14:22
Speaker 4: I would be like, I got a hide in my house.
14:24
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
14:28
Speaker 1: I just realize, like when you're in that running or
14:31
Speaker 1: when you're listening to music, it really talk to yourself
14:34
Speaker 1: way more or like I think to myself like oh
14:36
Speaker 1: I feel good today or I don't feel good, or
14:38
Speaker 1: things just kind of process in my mind, and it's
14:41
Speaker 1: like a similar way to journal for me, like I
14:43
Speaker 1: go through how I'm feeling.
14:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people equate the concept of running
14:48
Speaker 3: or the act of running to some form of moving meditation.
14:52
Speaker 3: For you, it's not quite there yet, however, that is
14:56
Speaker 3: exactly how you've described your experience with surfing. Now that
15:00
Speaker 3: experience is surfing and where you are now on the
15:03
Speaker 3: board and the water. That comfortability didn't happen overnight. Talk
15:08
Speaker 3: to me a little bit about the early stages of
15:11
Speaker 3: your career and when you knew that surfing was going
15:15
Speaker 3: to become way more than just a hobby for you.
15:19
Speaker 1: It was so crazy I was. I can remember this day.
15:21
Speaker 1: It was like probably my second time I went surfing
15:23
Speaker 1: with my dad, and he pushed me and I figured
15:25
Speaker 1: everything out and I like rolled the way from the
15:27
Speaker 1: start to the finish, and I was like, this is
15:29
Speaker 1: what I love, this is what I want to do.
15:31
Speaker 1: So at like four years old, I knew I wanted
15:33
Speaker 1: to be a pro surfer. And when we were in school,
15:35
Speaker 1: everyone would be like, you know, I want to do this.
15:36
Speaker 1: I wanted that, and I'd be like, I want to
15:38
Speaker 1: be a pro surfer. So I was I just knew,
15:41
Speaker 1: and I think too was kind of funny because back then, right,
15:44
Speaker 1: surfing's now evolved with like the Olympics, there's like it's
15:47
Speaker 1: way more known as a sport. But before people would
15:49
Speaker 1: be like labeling surfing as like a hobby slash stoner, you.
15:53
Speaker 4: Know, like sport.
15:55
Speaker 1: So it's definitely evolved. But when I was a kid
15:58
Speaker 1: and I would say that everyone think you got to
15:59
Speaker 1: get a real job, and that's what my teachers would
16:02
Speaker 1: always tell me. And I just knew in like my
16:04
Speaker 1: heart that that's what I wanted to do. And I
16:06
Speaker 1: love to compete. I'm ultra competitive. So I just I
16:09
Speaker 1: just knew at such a young age and I just
16:11
Speaker 1: followed my dream, which just sounds so cliche, but like
16:14
Speaker 1: I just I love taking risk and I love I
16:16
Speaker 1: don't know, I just love doing it even if I fail,
16:19
Speaker 1: like I failed so much in surfing and I failed
16:21
Speaker 1: in other areas. But I think if you don't take
16:23
Speaker 1: that risk, you don't know how far you can go.
16:26
Speaker 2: I am talking to you from Brooklyn, New York.
16:29
Speaker 3: So it's almost surprising to me that more young humans
16:34
Speaker 3: in Hawaii aren't saying something like I want to be
16:38
Speaker 3: a surfer when I grow up.
16:40
Speaker 1: You know, it was weird. For a moment, there was
16:42
Speaker 1: a lot of kids that did like right after my generation.
16:45
Speaker 1: I say, like, I'm like an old veteran, but you know,
16:47
Speaker 1: like the younger and upper comers there's a lot more now.
16:49
Speaker 1: For a moment, there wasn't a lot of up and
16:52
Speaker 1: coming surfers and it was kind of like a really
16:53
Speaker 1: sad thing for us because I was like, man, you know,
16:57
Speaker 1: where where is the next generation? And now there's just
16:59
Speaker 1: been so many rippers. It's so cool to see every
17:02
Speaker 1: place has a lot of younger kids surfing, you know
17:05
Speaker 1: now at the wave pools. I feel like our sports
17:07
Speaker 1: evolving a lot. So it's really really cool. And why
17:09
Speaker 1: we're surrounded by water. It's literally the birthplace of surfing,
17:13
Speaker 1: so I feel like everyone has it in their blood here.
17:16
Speaker 3: How did you feel when surfing was added to the Olympics.
17:18
Speaker 3: I know that you just touched on that.
17:21
Speaker 1: I was super super stoked because I feel like that
17:23
Speaker 1: just puts our sport at such a higher level. And
17:26
Speaker 1: elevates it. And you know, you had Chris On here,
17:28
Speaker 1: someone I looked up to. I just traveled with her
17:30
Speaker 1: to All Solvator to represent Team USA and to represent
17:34
Speaker 1: with like a team. Since surfing is such an individual sport,
17:37
Speaker 1: it's really cool to have that camaraderie and everyone supporting
17:40
Speaker 1: each other instead of being like really competitive. So I
17:44
Speaker 1: think that's the coolest part and get to elevate our
17:46
Speaker 1: sport for sure.
17:48
Speaker 3: Where do you believe that that competitive nature came from
17:51
Speaker 3: for you? Was that something that was instilled in you
17:54
Speaker 3: from a young age or is that something that you
17:55
Speaker 3: kind of acquired as surfing became so second nature and
17:59
Speaker 3: graded in your y.
18:01
Speaker 1: I think, honestly it all ties down to my small
18:03
Speaker 1: hand because I felt like it had to make me stronger,
18:06
Speaker 1: and I wanted to prove to everyone that I was
18:08
Speaker 1: good enough. And it went to surfing where I wanted
18:10
Speaker 1: to prove to everyone that I could beat them, that
18:11
Speaker 1: I was just as equal as them, and just because
18:15
Speaker 1: I was different doesn't mean that I couldn't beat them.
18:17
Speaker 1: And I just got really competitive no matter what I'm doing,
18:20
Speaker 1: Like even the runs, I'm like trying to beat my
18:23
Speaker 1: friends and I'm like man one of them. One of
18:25
Speaker 1: them was like, gonna really fast run, and I'm like,
18:27
Speaker 1: I'm gonna beat you. I just need to settle down
18:31
Speaker 1: on the competitiveness. But also my mom is a little
18:36
Speaker 1: competitive too. She's not like a full altra like sports
18:39
Speaker 1: surf mom, but she's definitely a tiger mom.
18:43
Speaker 2: A tiger mom. Did you grow up calling it your
18:46
Speaker 2: small hand?
18:47
Speaker 1: Yes, it's been like the joke of the small hand,
18:49
Speaker 1: and it still goes. Like my friends that I've known
18:52
Speaker 1: my whole life, we even call it the small hand.
18:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
18:56
Speaker 3: Has calling it the small hand over time made you
18:59
Speaker 3: feel different ways?
19:01
Speaker 4: I think so.
19:02
Speaker 1: I think in the beginning it was almost like such
19:04
Speaker 1: a hurtful thing to me because people would be like
19:06
Speaker 1: why do you have that small hand? And then like
19:08
Speaker 1: I looked at it as like I'm so when I
19:11
Speaker 1: got older, right like when I was like age nineteen,
19:13
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm so stoked to have the small hand
19:15
Speaker 1: because it's taught me like to be nice to people
19:17
Speaker 1: and how you can really have an effect on someone, right, Like,
19:20
Speaker 1: you don't realize it until someone says mean things. Here
19:22
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, people can really be mean. Like I'm
19:25
Speaker 1: looking at that poster behind me that says be nice
19:27
Speaker 1: to people. I think my hand has taught me like
19:29
Speaker 1: to show compassion and love and the small hand has
19:33
Speaker 1: been now is a big blessing for sure.
19:37
Speaker 2: When and how did you flip the switch on that?
19:41
Speaker 1: I think one day I just got super over, Like
19:43
Speaker 1: I just got so over like hiding who I was.
19:46
Speaker 1: And I even would tell like the people that I
19:48
Speaker 1: would be dating, like my ex boyfriend, like oh I'm sorry,
19:51
Speaker 1: I have a small hand, Like I was so ashamed
19:53
Speaker 1: of it, and I made the story in my head
19:54
Speaker 1: that I was so different, and like one day I
19:56
Speaker 1: was like, are you kidding me? Like it's such a
19:59
Speaker 1: small but I've made it this like pinnacle in my
20:02
Speaker 1: story of my whole life that I was over, Like
20:04
Speaker 1: I was just like I'm done. I want to And
20:08
Speaker 1: then I was talking to Bethany, one of my best friends.
20:10
Speaker 1: She lost your arm in the shark attack if you
20:12
Speaker 1: guys don't know, but she was like, you just got
20:14
Speaker 1: to embrace who you are. And I was like, okay,
20:16
Speaker 1: if she's telling me that, you know, she has a
20:18
Speaker 1: huge difference like compared to me, and she just embraces
20:22
Speaker 1: it and she's proud of it.
20:24
Speaker 4: And that really helped.
20:24
Speaker 3: Me, just casually dropping that Bethany Hamilton is one of
20:28
Speaker 3: your closest friends. Bethany Hamilton also another pro surfer who,
20:33
Speaker 3: as you.
20:33
Speaker 2: Mentioned, lost her left arm in a shark attack.
20:36
Speaker 3: So interesting to hear you say the words I made
20:39
Speaker 3: this story in my head because at that time, this
20:43
Speaker 3: story in your head, that was your reality, right, So
20:45
Speaker 3: it's extremely valid that you felt that way.
20:48
Speaker 2: But realizing that you had the opportunity then to shift
20:53
Speaker 2: that narrative going forward, there must have been a lot
20:57
Speaker 2: of power in that.
20:58
Speaker 1: It's so weird, Like I almost it almost leaves me
20:59
Speaker 1: like a little speechless because I don't know what happened
21:03
Speaker 1: or what clicked. But I just really think like I
21:06
Speaker 1: just built up so much stress about it. Like even
21:09
Speaker 1: I got my first job with under Armor when I
21:11
Speaker 1: was sixteen or seventeen, and I went up to the
21:13
Speaker 1: photographer and I explained to them, like, please don't capture
21:15
Speaker 1: my left side, and I just I hated that feeling
21:18
Speaker 1: more than I at the time didn't like my small hand,
21:21
Speaker 1: Like I hated having to be like I'm so sorry
21:23
Speaker 1: for being different that I just was like I'm over it,
21:26
Speaker 1: Like I want to just be proud of who I am,
21:28
Speaker 1: and yeah, I just kind of like it's slowly. It's
21:32
Speaker 1: not like overnight I was like, yeah, bam, you know,
21:35
Speaker 1: but like over time, it's made me really proud of
21:39
Speaker 1: who I am, and it's taught me a lot, and
21:41
Speaker 1: I like pretty much think that's.
21:43
Speaker 4: Why I am who I am.
21:44
Speaker 2: I think there's power in that.
21:46
Speaker 3: Yes, and also and understanding that despite having come so
21:51
Speaker 3: far and feeling so confident in who you are now today,
21:55
Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be moments
21:57
Speaker 3: where you're still frustrated or angry or insert other emotion
22:01
Speaker 3: here because of something that you can't control.
22:04
Speaker 1: I think it helped me with my emotions though, because
22:08
Speaker 1: I've had to like figure it out so much with
22:10
Speaker 1: my hand. But like, I'm a very emotional person, but
22:13
Speaker 1: I think having this has taught me how to balance
22:15
Speaker 1: my emotions. Like I cry, all, what if I'm watching
22:17
Speaker 1: TV and something happens, I'm like, oh no, But it
22:20
Speaker 1: just taught me a lot about empathy and feeling for people.
22:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's a really special and beautiful quality to
22:25
Speaker 3: have and something to recognize within yourself. You mentioned that
22:29
Speaker 3: under armored sponsorship. I know that they were maybe your
22:33
Speaker 3: token sponsor for a number of years, and that relationship
22:36
Speaker 3: dissolved in twenty sixteen.
22:38
Speaker 2: Talk to me about how that made you feel.
22:41
Speaker 1: Honestly, I was so grateful for them at the time
22:43
Speaker 1: because for me, in surfing, everyone usually sticks to like
22:47
Speaker 1: surf sponsorships, right, like they stick with the Roxies bill On,
22:50
Speaker 1: But like, I was always so drawn to fitness because
22:52
Speaker 1: I felt like in power doing it. I felt like
22:55
Speaker 1: I could. I just felt really good mentally, And that's
22:57
Speaker 1: where I spent a lot of time as a kid,
22:59
Speaker 1: even was in the gym. Like if I wasn't surfing,
23:01
Speaker 1: I wanted to be better and surfing, so I would
23:03
Speaker 1: be in the gym. And I just knew that I
23:05
Speaker 1: always wanted to take that path into fitness. So it
23:08
Speaker 1: kind of helped me at a younger age go into
23:10
Speaker 1: that direction. And once I was with under Armored, like
23:13
Speaker 1: they really I think helped me with my career. They
23:16
Speaker 1: introduced me to amazing people like Kelly O'Hara, one of
23:19
Speaker 1: my closest friends. You know, like it's just really cool
23:21
Speaker 1: to be outside of the surf and meet more athletes
23:24
Speaker 1: that aren't so surf And yeah, I have only positive
23:28
Speaker 1: things to say about them. It's really shaped my career
23:31
Speaker 1: and it was.
23:31
Speaker 4: So long ago.
23:32
Speaker 1: I feel like I was like a baby when they
23:35
Speaker 1: did that, but it really gave me the confidence I
23:37
Speaker 1: needed to like chase that fitness side of surfing and
23:40
Speaker 1: tie in the two together.
23:42
Speaker 3: What would you say that having sponsors and obtaining sponsorship.
23:46
Speaker 2: What does that do for you in your career?
23:49
Speaker 1: So surfing, we pretty much unless you're on like the
23:52
Speaker 1: top World Sleep World Surf League Championship Tour. The Prizeman
23:57
Speaker 1: is amazing on that tour, right But if you're not
23:59
Speaker 1: on there, you're on the Qualifying series or the Challenger Series,
24:02
Speaker 1: which is trying to get to that level. You rely
24:05
Speaker 1: on your sponsorships one hundred percent. You travel all around
24:08
Speaker 1: the world, it's all international and pretty much you're in Brazil, Portugal, Australia,
24:12
Speaker 1: So you really need sponsors to get you to these events,
24:15
Speaker 1: and if you don't have them at the sport is
24:17
Speaker 1: so expensive. So that's the hardest thing I would say
24:20
Speaker 1: about competitive surfing is it's a really big investment to
24:23
Speaker 1: be traveling to all these places you know, and you're alone.
24:26
Speaker 1: You're not really traveling with the team. You can like
24:29
Speaker 1: travel with a few friends, but you're mostly just traveling
24:32
Speaker 1: by yourself.
24:33
Speaker 3: What has figuring out a way for yourself in the
24:38
Speaker 3: realm of learning how to work with sponsors and whatnot?
24:41
Speaker 2: What has that all taught you?
24:42
Speaker 3: Because knowing that you need the support to do what
24:47
Speaker 3: you love, I'm sure there's a lot of emotion tied
24:50
Speaker 3: in that frustration sometimes. So what has that part of
24:54
Speaker 3: the journey you really taught you?
24:56
Speaker 1: You know?
24:56
Speaker 4: It's so funny.
24:57
Speaker 1: So my mom and dad own a shop on Kwhi.
25:00
Speaker 1: It's called the Hawaiian Trading Posts, and I've literally worked
25:02
Speaker 1: there since I was like five years old till.
25:05
Speaker 4: I was like sixteen.
25:06
Speaker 1: I would always be at the shop and always like
25:08
Speaker 1: selling things with my mom, And I think that that
25:11
Speaker 1: just taught me how to be a hard worker. And
25:13
Speaker 1: like every time I've had a sponsorship, I want to
25:15
Speaker 1: work as hard as I can for them to make
25:16
Speaker 1: sure that they're super happy and it's beneficial for both.
25:20
Speaker 1: So I think that kind of was instilled into me
25:21
Speaker 1: at a young age, like it's not what the company, like,
25:24
Speaker 1: what you can do for the companies, what you should
25:26
Speaker 1: really be trying to do. And that's kind of what
25:28
Speaker 1: my mom instilled in me. So I've just learned to
25:31
Speaker 1: like work with a bunch of different people. And I'm
25:35
Speaker 1: really really grateful because all the companies I work with
25:37
Speaker 1: I really believe in and that's a huge thing for me.
25:40
Speaker 1: Like I don't endorse any alcohol products because I don't drink. Like,
25:43
Speaker 1: I really keep it one hundred percent true to who
25:46
Speaker 1: I am. And it might sound like super old school
25:48
Speaker 1: because I know some people are like, oh, just take it.
25:50
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a long career, but it really
25:53
Speaker 1: means a lot to me to like represent companies that
25:55
Speaker 1: align with myself.
25:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and now, as you mentioned being part of the
26:01
Speaker 3: US national team, you've been surfing for quite some time
26:04
Speaker 3: and starting more recently, I would argue you're getting some
26:08
Speaker 3: of the recognition that you deserve. How does it feel
26:13
Speaker 3: to have been in the game for so long at
26:16
Speaker 3: this point and what have you learned about that concept
26:19
Speaker 3: of longevity Here?
26:20
Speaker 1: It's definitely a marathon, not a sprint, for sure.
26:25
Speaker 4: There's a lot of hurdles.
26:26
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tie in all the words here, but there's
26:30
Speaker 1: been so many times, like I remember telling one of
26:32
Speaker 1: my best friends like three years ago that I don't
26:33
Speaker 1: think surfing competitively is for me because I would just
26:36
Speaker 1: like investing so much time, so much money, so everything
26:39
Speaker 1: of my life. Like for a one point, I wasn't
26:41
Speaker 1: even dating because I was like, I just want to
26:43
Speaker 1: be the world champ. Like I just had crazy tunnel vision,
26:47
Speaker 1: which it was almost unhealthy just because I lost like
26:51
Speaker 1: balance in my life. But it just taught me to
26:54
Speaker 1: just keep going. There's been so many doors that closed
26:57
Speaker 1: on me, and I just kept pushing through and pushing through,
26:59
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I just really feel like it's
27:02
Speaker 1: taught me so much about just keep persevering because it's
27:06
Speaker 1: gonna happen, Like it's such a cheesy thing and be
27:08
Speaker 1: like just keep you know, when one door closes, but
27:10
Speaker 1: it's so true. Like I used to get so bummed
27:13
Speaker 1: if like a sponsorship didn't continue or something or something
27:16
Speaker 1: happened where I lost the contest. But I just never
27:18
Speaker 1: gave up and I just kept pushing pushing through.
27:22
Speaker 3: What's been one of the most difficult doors that closed
27:25
Speaker 3: that you had to figure out another way.
27:28
Speaker 1: Honestly, during COVID it was really tough because our tour
27:32
Speaker 1: went on a complete hold, right, so we weren't competing
27:35
Speaker 1: and I lost a bunch of sponsors all at once,
27:37
Speaker 1: and I at that age, right, that was a few
27:40
Speaker 1: years ago, I was still a little I've done a
27:41
Speaker 1: lot of self work, but I was just tied so
27:45
Speaker 1: much to the companies. I'm like, Wow, if I don't
27:46
Speaker 1: have a sponsor, I'm not valued. I'm not I'm not
27:49
Speaker 1: good enough. So there was so many things that were
27:51
Speaker 1: going on in my head when that happened. And then
27:53
Speaker 1: to lose like a chunk out of time, I was like, wow,
27:56
Speaker 1: I really am not good enough. I shouldn't be doing this.
27:58
Speaker 1: What should I do next? Like, it just was a
28:00
Speaker 1: really low point for me because I realized how much
28:03
Speaker 1: value of myself I put and was having these sponsors.
28:07
Speaker 1: I was like really really aligning myself to like think,
28:12
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was just a really tough time.
28:13
Speaker 1: So definitely COVID and it taught me a lot. For sure.
28:17
Speaker 3: You mentioned doing the work, and I want to hear
28:19
Speaker 3: about that, but I also want to hear about how
28:22
Speaker 3: you navigated that tough time, feeling as though the rug
28:25
Speaker 3: was being pulled out from under you.
28:27
Speaker 2: How did you deal with stress in that time period.
28:31
Speaker 1: I dealt with it by literally surfing every day, like
28:35
Speaker 1: I was so stressed out. It was a weird feeling.
28:38
Speaker 1: Like one week went by and like seven companies didn't
28:41
Speaker 1: continue with me, and I just was pulling the stickers
28:43
Speaker 1: off my board and I'm like, wow, this is.
28:46
Speaker 4: This is the real deal.
28:47
Speaker 1: Like even if they're pausing for now, I just happened
28:50
Speaker 1: so quickly. I just had to adapt. And I think
28:52
Speaker 1: that that really just taught me like when things go bad,
28:55
Speaker 1: there's always a silver lining, even if you don't see
28:57
Speaker 1: it at the time. Like at that time, I was like, man,
28:59
Speaker 1: I don't think I can do this anymore. There was
29:01
Speaker 1: rumors about they're not going to be any more contest ever,
29:04
Speaker 1: Like it just felt like all of our lives just
29:06
Speaker 1: change overnight, which a lot of people did, right, So
29:08
Speaker 1: I would just trying to navigate what was going on,
29:12
Speaker 1: and I just kept being like, no, this is what
29:13
Speaker 1: I want to do. It's going to come back. It's
29:15
Speaker 1: going to come back. And I took a pause for
29:17
Speaker 1: a little bit because everyone did.
29:18
Speaker 4: But it just taught me.
29:20
Speaker 1: Once things started getting back on track, I really wanted
29:23
Speaker 1: to be with more companies that support me in good
29:26
Speaker 1: or bad times, because that was a really hard time
29:28
Speaker 1: and I was like man, this is the big slap
29:31
Speaker 1: in the face. I kind of felt like my whole
29:33
Speaker 1: life I was working for something and it just didn't
29:35
Speaker 1: didn't go well.
29:36
Speaker 3: So relatable, right, so many of us can truly put
29:40
Speaker 3: ourselves in your shoes. Whether or not it had to
29:43
Speaker 3: do with surfing, that was just such an uncertain time
29:46
Speaker 3: for so many. Now, you did talk about doing the work.
29:51
Speaker 3: I love the phrase the work. We all use it,
29:53
Speaker 3: We all about how we're doing it. But in your case,
29:57
Speaker 3: what did doing the work look like?
30:00
Speaker 4: For me?
30:01
Speaker 1: It was a lot of meditating and journaling and just
30:04
Speaker 1: kind of sitting with myself. Like I have a hard
30:06
Speaker 1: time like being alone. I love to have people around
30:08
Speaker 1: me all the time. But I realized I think I
30:11
Speaker 1: needed to spend more time with myself, and that's what
30:13
Speaker 1: it forced me to do, because I didn't like to
30:15
Speaker 1: sit with my thoughts and be like, oh my gosh,
30:17
Speaker 1: this is stressful or how am I feeling. But it's
30:20
Speaker 1: so easy to run away from how you feel and
30:23
Speaker 1: hang out with people or have just like a distraction.
30:26
Speaker 1: But when you sit with yourself and you really realize
30:28
Speaker 1: how you're feeling, that's where all I feel like the
30:30
Speaker 1: self work comes from, and that's really what I really
30:34
Speaker 1: just did a lot of meditation and sound bowls.
30:37
Speaker 4: Like I have sound bowls in my house.
30:39
Speaker 1: I just wanted to find out who I was and
30:41
Speaker 1: what kind of person I wanted to be outside of surfing,
30:43
Speaker 1: because my whole life I valued how I was with
30:47
Speaker 1: how I was competing, and when we weren't competing, I
30:49
Speaker 1: was like, wow, I am actually happy. I feel whole.
30:52
Speaker 1: I feel good. I don't need these contests to make
30:54
Speaker 1: me feel like a winner or a loser.
30:56
Speaker 3: Well, that was going to be my next question, is
30:58
Speaker 3: what did you learn about yourself when you finally embraced
31:03
Speaker 3: that silence.
31:05
Speaker 1: Silence is scary, but it's really good because you see,
31:08
Speaker 1: you learn so much. But I just learned that about
31:12
Speaker 1: myself was that I needed to stop like caring so
31:16
Speaker 1: much about what people think. And I think that just
31:17
Speaker 1: stems from my little hand. And also it goes to
31:20
Speaker 1: when I would do bad at contest, like all these
31:22
Speaker 1: things that I was holding in and I was like
31:24
Speaker 1: letting that dictate my self worth and when I would
31:27
Speaker 1: sit by myself at big You know what, I don't
31:29
Speaker 1: care how people remember me as long as I'm like
31:31
Speaker 1: a good person and I want someone to leave a
31:32
Speaker 1: conversation with me feeling better, not me making them feel worse.
31:36
Speaker 1: So that's what I learned that the person I wanted
31:38
Speaker 1: to be I didn't want it to be named as
31:40
Speaker 1: like this pro surfer. I wanted to be named as
31:42
Speaker 1: like she's cool, She's nice.
31:48
Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode with Brianna to give.
31:51
Speaker 2: Some love to my friends at Strava. I'm geeked to.
31:56
Speaker 3: Be reciting a midrol ad read right now from this
32:00
Speaker 3: company because it is truly a product that I use
32:05
Speaker 3: almost every single day. For those of you that are
32:08
Speaker 3: unaware of what Strava is, think of it as a
32:11
Speaker 3: social network for all things activity on Strava. Your runs
32:16
Speaker 3: and rides. They aren't just workouts, They're epic adventures just
32:19
Speaker 3: waiting to be shared. You can track your progress, challenge
32:22
Speaker 3: your friends, snag what they call to be kudos, think
32:25
Speaker 3: of that as Facebook meta whatever you want to call it, likes,
32:29
Speaker 3: and discover new roots that even your GPS didn't know existed.
32:34
Speaker 3: That's probably one of my favorite things about the platform,
32:37
Speaker 3: especially for someone who travels so much. When I go
32:40
Speaker 3: to a new city, a new place, I can open
32:43
Speaker 3: my Strava app and find out what are the most
32:46
Speaker 3: popular roots in the area. I can differentiate them by mileage.
32:51
Speaker 3: I can see what time of day they are most traversed.
32:54
Speaker 3: It's truly such a major, major help. Plus I also
32:59
Speaker 3: love it for and community.
33:01
Speaker 2: There's even a.
33:01
Speaker 3: Hurdler group over there. I'm going to link that group
33:04
Speaker 3: in the show notes. I'd love for you to join us.
33:07
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35:04
Speaker 3: And that wanting to leave a positive imprint on people
35:09
Speaker 3: arguably comes from your experiences with people leaving less than
35:14
Speaker 3: a stellar impact on you, making you feel as though
35:17
Speaker 3: you were lesser than because again of this thing that
35:19
Speaker 3: you can not change.
35:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that's all what my real
35:25
Speaker 1: calling in life was, and maybe it was from surfing
35:27
Speaker 1: that has given me this platform of course to like
35:29
Speaker 1: reach people. But I just want to be able to
35:32
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't ever like making someone feel crappy,
35:36
Speaker 1: So that's one thing like out of surfing, I just
35:38
Speaker 1: want to make people feel happy and help them find
35:40
Speaker 1: like their happy place.
35:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, who makes you feel happy right now?
35:46
Speaker 4: Who makes you feel happy right now?
35:47
Speaker 1: I would say all my friends and my family. I
35:52
Speaker 1: just love love feeling with positive energy, and like I'm
35:56
Speaker 1: big into people's energy and like what I surround myself
35:59
Speaker 1: with and how I just like go with my everyday life.
36:03
Speaker 1: I sound a little hippish, I'm sorry, but I'm really
36:05
Speaker 1: begging to energy and just like making sure the people
36:08
Speaker 1: you spend your time with are people that make you
36:10
Speaker 1: feel better or that uplift you, and that's.
36:13
Speaker 2: Energy faucet instead of an energy drain.
36:16
Speaker 4: Yes, you need to just be around, like there's nothing better.
36:19
Speaker 1: When all your friends leaving your home, you're like, yeah,
36:21
Speaker 1: I'm rejuvenated, you know, instead of being like.
36:24
Speaker 4: Thank god they.
36:25
Speaker 5: Left, They're out of here and I could be alone again. Yeah,
36:32
Speaker 5: where would you say that extra energy comes from for
36:36
Speaker 5: you right now as you are gearing up to run
36:40
Speaker 5: the New York City Marathon.
36:42
Speaker 1: So it's actually super special. I'm running the marathon for
36:45
Speaker 1: charity for Haymakers for Hope, and it's for cancer research.
36:50
Speaker 1: And one of my really good friends, Mike, he uh
36:53
Speaker 1: just beat brain cancer and he had like a as
36:56
Speaker 1: he's young, he's like thirty thirty two, and he just
37:00
Speaker 1: really inspired me. So like every time I'm running, I
37:03
Speaker 1: really dedicate my runs to him because after all the
37:05
Speaker 1: things he's been through, he was so positive. He like
37:09
Speaker 1: made the craziest He would text me during all my contests,
37:12
Speaker 1: even if he was in chemotherapy and be like I'm
37:14
Speaker 1: watching and he would be having like the toughest time,
37:17
Speaker 1: right Like I just put myself in his shoes, and
37:19
Speaker 1: he still had the positivity and like, what send me
37:22
Speaker 1: these really nice TEGs. When he was going through chemo,
37:24
Speaker 1: he was wearing a low hush shirts and like making
37:26
Speaker 1: it like fun. Like, so when I'm running, I'm like,
37:29
Speaker 1: this is for him. I'm dedicating it to him, and
37:33
Speaker 1: I just every time I'm running, I just think about him.
37:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And you know, just as he inspires you
37:40
Speaker 3: to your credit. You inspire so many people as someone
37:45
Speaker 3: who maybe before this year didn't necessarily identify as a runner.
37:51
Speaker 3: What advice would you offer to someone else who's taking
37:54
Speaker 3: on something new like this?
37:57
Speaker 1: Oh man, I think just charge full force, see, like,
38:00
Speaker 1: just have fun.
38:01
Speaker 4: I don't know, it's so.
38:02
Speaker 1: Different for me, Like when I'm running, I don't spend
38:05
Speaker 1: a lot of time on the concrete. I don't like
38:07
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time. Really, I'm in the water
38:09
Speaker 1: all the time. So I feel like, just just go
38:12
Speaker 1: for it and try a challenge. Like if you don't
38:13
Speaker 1: put yourself in somewhere you are not supposed to be
38:16
Speaker 1: or where you're not used to being, you can't grow.
38:18
Speaker 1: And I've grown so much running, which is sounds so
38:21
Speaker 1: funny because you're like just running, but the things that
38:23
Speaker 1: you accomplish when you're running, and seeing you seeing yourself
38:27
Speaker 1: like get better or pushing yourself on days you don't
38:30
Speaker 1: want to run, like you know, today I'm gonna surf
38:33
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna run, and I don't feel like
38:35
Speaker 1: running today.
38:35
Speaker 4: I'm a little sore from yesterday.
38:37
Speaker 1: But you realize you just grow so much when you
38:40
Speaker 1: do things that you're not used to doing.
38:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really Again going back to that conversation about
38:45
Speaker 3: stretching your comfort zone. I know that you did complete
38:50
Speaker 3: your first half marathon not all that long ago.
38:53
Speaker 2: It's a big year in terms of adding mileage for you.
38:56
Speaker 1: It's a big year. And that one was pretty funny.
38:58
Speaker 1: It's called hell in the Hill, so you go in
39:00
Speaker 1: a circle up and down a hill for that amount
39:03
Speaker 1: of time. And I was like, might as well try that,
39:05
Speaker 1: Like that's gonna be a fun one. And I had
39:07
Speaker 1: so much fun. Like I was like, this is sick.
39:10
Speaker 1: I love it like I loved I love being surrounded
39:13
Speaker 1: by people that push themselves like that. And when you're
39:17
Speaker 1: running or pushing yourselves, and especially a marathon half any
39:21
Speaker 1: type of running or doing you're pushing yourself because I
39:24
Speaker 1: swear you finish and you're like this is the best
39:26
Speaker 1: thing ever. But during you're like, what is happening?
39:31
Speaker 3: You know, most people who were their first to have
39:32
Speaker 3: marathon don't do something that has a zillion hills in it.
39:36
Speaker 4: I just like to go extreme.
39:40
Speaker 3: Well, you are picking a great first marathon to do
39:44
Speaker 3: in terms of New York City. Now I know that
39:46
Speaker 3: you're partnering also with Strava on this, so you're really
39:50
Speaker 3: you're going all in.
39:52
Speaker 1: I'm going all in. And it's pretty funny too, because
39:54
Speaker 1: I was worried about posting my times. I'm like, man,
39:56
Speaker 1: they're gonna think I'm slow, or they're not going to
39:59
Speaker 1: think I'm going long enough. But it's been so fun
40:03
Speaker 1: tracking everything because I figure out where it liked to run,
40:06
Speaker 1: and like, I ran my first eighteen miles the other
40:08
Speaker 1: day and I felt so I was, like, felt so accomplished.
40:11
Speaker 1: I feel like I already ran the marathon. I'm like, man,
40:13
Speaker 1: if you would have asked me a year ago if
40:15
Speaker 1: I was gonna run eighteen miles, I would have laughed
40:16
Speaker 1: at you would have been like, no, thank you. But
40:20
Speaker 1: it's been super fun and super fun seeing the progress.
40:22
Speaker 1: And I'm running with my best friend and my other
40:24
Speaker 1: two friends from New York, so it'll be a lot
40:27
Speaker 1: of fun.
40:27
Speaker 2: Oh see, look at you already.
40:29
Speaker 3: Having a great community when it comes to running.
40:32
Speaker 4: I love it.
40:32
Speaker 1: I love any type of community that brings each other
40:36
Speaker 1: and uplifts each other because I think that's what we
40:38
Speaker 1: should all do. We should always be cheering each other
40:40
Speaker 1: on instead of tearing each other down.
40:42
Speaker 3: It seems as though that is like, what has been
40:44
Speaker 3: the missing link for you when it comes to surfing, Like,
40:47
Speaker 3: I know there is community and love within the sport,
40:50
Speaker 3: but it is generally speaking such a solo undertake ga.
40:53
Speaker 1: Yes, it's so solo, Like honestly, I've done it my
40:56
Speaker 1: whole life. And I would say, like I have five
40:58
Speaker 1: close friends from surfing, which is out of like hundreds
41:02
Speaker 1: of female surfers or male surfers. I have five core friends,
41:06
Speaker 1: and which is totally different because like in running, I
41:09
Speaker 1: feel like it's a full community and working out it's
41:11
Speaker 1: a full community. It's different when you're doing a solo
41:14
Speaker 1: sport because it's so hard to be so close with
41:17
Speaker 1: someone that you want to be, especially like if it's
41:19
Speaker 1: like your livelihood and how you survive, you it's hard
41:22
Speaker 1: to be friends with them because you want to be
41:24
Speaker 1: You can't. You can separate it, but it's it's really
41:27
Speaker 1: hard to at least for me.
41:29
Speaker 3: What would you say your biggest goals are now within
41:33
Speaker 3: your specific sport.
41:35
Speaker 1: My biggest goal would definitely be to get a really
41:38
Speaker 1: big pipeline or backdoor wave this year. That's my biggest goal.
41:42
Speaker 1: I want a really big wave this year. So I've
41:45
Speaker 1: been training for I feel like my cardo has been
41:47
Speaker 1: great for running from running, and that's the biggest goal.
41:51
Speaker 3: And for someone that's unfamiliar what that actually means, can
41:54
Speaker 3: you flush it out a little bit?
41:56
Speaker 4: Of course?
41:56
Speaker 1: So pipelines a world's one of the world's like deadliest waves.
41:59
Speaker 1: It's a huge wave in Hawaii on the north shore.
42:02
Speaker 1: It's really famous and it breaks on pretty much dry wreath,
42:05
Speaker 1: like it's really shallow. It's really dangerous, but it's like
42:09
Speaker 1: the best, most strongest, I would say, like barrel that
42:12
Speaker 1: you could get. And I've just been super called to
42:15
Speaker 1: it after being in the Evans Pipe Masters last year,
42:17
Speaker 1: And I really really want to get a good wave
42:19
Speaker 1: this winter and that's my biggest goal. And it's weird
42:22
Speaker 1: to not have like a competitive goal with surfing right now.
42:25
Speaker 1: I really want to have like a more spiritual goal
42:28
Speaker 1: with surfing and getting like a bigger wave.
42:30
Speaker 3: You so casually just said words like very dangerous, shallow water, risk,
42:36
Speaker 3: et cetera. And you're so excited about that. How like
42:43
Speaker 3: do you remember when you stopped, like when did that
42:48
Speaker 3: fear go away for you?
42:50
Speaker 2: Around these things?
42:52
Speaker 1: I feel like I have so much trust in the ocean,
42:56
Speaker 1: maybe like that's a good and bad thing. But I
42:58
Speaker 1: love risk. I love getting scared. I love putting myself
43:02
Speaker 1: in uncomfortable positions. Like last year was really really big
43:06
Speaker 1: for me, which was like twenty foot faces at pipeline
43:09
Speaker 1: and I was crying my eyes out before and I
43:11
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to go out.
43:12
Speaker 4: I'm scared. Talk to Bethany.
43:14
Speaker 1: Don't mean to name ed opp her, but she gave
43:16
Speaker 1: me a little pep talk and it really helped. And
43:19
Speaker 1: when I got out of the water, I felt so
43:21
Speaker 1: alive and that just like sparked something in my brain.
43:23
Speaker 1: My sister was like, I've never seen you that happy,
43:26
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I just really want to,
43:28
Speaker 1: like I really want to get a big wave, and
43:30
Speaker 1: that's been my goal all year, so I can't wait.
43:33
Speaker 4: I love risk.
43:34
Speaker 1: I love I feel like I feel so alive when
43:36
Speaker 1: I'm like in a dangerous place, it's probably.
43:38
Speaker 2: Not a good day.
43:40
Speaker 3: But that's what they call alignment, right when you feel
43:43
Speaker 3: as though you are acting in purpose, on purpose, you're
43:47
Speaker 3: doing the things that you're supposed to be doing, regardless
43:50
Speaker 3: of what anybody else thinks about the thing that you're doing,
43:53
Speaker 3: the goal that you're going after, right, It's how you
43:56
Speaker 3: feel in that moment, how you feel chasing these otherwise
43:59
Speaker 3: fright situations.
44:02
Speaker 4: It's so weird.
44:03
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't want to say like I
44:04
Speaker 1: was called to it, but I just feel like so alive,
44:06
Speaker 1: and I just I really want to do it. And
44:08
Speaker 1: I have so much trust in my ability in the
44:10
Speaker 1: water that I know I'll be fine. But I probably
44:13
Speaker 1: won't tell my mom until I'm like done with the goal. Mom.
44:19
Speaker 2: No, you don't want to scare them too much.
44:21
Speaker 3: It's it's also interesting talking or hearing you talk about
44:25
Speaker 3: not having a certain like other category of goal, right,
44:29
Speaker 3: Like you have this goal to hit this pipeline, but
44:32
Speaker 3: other than that, you're not talking big competitions or even
44:36
Speaker 3: necessarily Olympics, right, Yes, why do you feel as though
44:42
Speaker 3: And I don't want to put more ords in your mouth,
44:44
Speaker 3: but what I'm hearing you say is that your goal
44:48
Speaker 3: to some might quote unquote not be big enough.
44:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, because I'm not like, oh, I want
44:53
Speaker 1: to you know, my whole life. Of course, the goal
44:56
Speaker 1: is to win a world title, be an Olympic athlete,
44:59
Speaker 1: and when all these contest, but when I've done my
45:02
Speaker 1: I've dedicated my whole life to it. I've been competing
45:04
Speaker 1: since I was eleven years old. I just turned twenty nine.
45:07
Speaker 1: I really just wanted to take a step back from
45:09
Speaker 1: competing and kind of figure out what else makes me happy, happy,
45:13
Speaker 1: and what else do I get that alive feeling from,
45:16
Speaker 1: And right now I feel like it's from surfing big
45:19
Speaker 1: waves and surfing things that are doing things that challenge myself.
45:22
Speaker 1: Right the marathon's a big goal of mine, Pipeline's a
45:25
Speaker 1: big goal mine, Like the goals are changing and it's
45:28
Speaker 1: just not so competition based, which is totally different because
45:31
Speaker 1: last year I would have been like twin to do this,
45:34
Speaker 1: Like I'm just finding way more happiness doing other things
45:38
Speaker 1: and I love to compete, but I just don't feel
45:43
Speaker 1: like that right now. I just maybe need a little break.
45:46
Speaker 3: You're moving the goalposts and you're not shooting on yourself,
45:50
Speaker 3: which I would say is a really hard thing for
45:53
Speaker 3: a lot of individuals for sure.
45:56
Speaker 1: When I decided like to take a little step back,
45:59
Speaker 1: like I am still competing. I just competed in Asalbital
46:01
Speaker 1: with curso, so I can't say like, oh, I've taken
46:03
Speaker 1: a full step back, but I just wanted to see
46:06
Speaker 1: like how I felt not doing the full tour right
46:09
Speaker 1: Like if I was competing full time, I would be
46:11
Speaker 1: doing this in Brazil right now, we'd be talking in Brazil.
46:13
Speaker 1: But I just was like last year, I just felt
46:16
Speaker 1: so burnt out at events and I just was like,
46:18
Speaker 1: why am I? Why am I here? And I talked
46:21
Speaker 1: about this on like the Surf Girl show we did
46:23
Speaker 1: with Amazon that like I just felt so burn like sad.
46:26
Speaker 1: I would just like I feel sad every time I compete,
46:29
Speaker 1: and I would just like I'm throwing these pity parties
46:31
Speaker 1: for myself. I'm super over it, Like I don't like
46:33
Speaker 1: to do that, Like I don't like to be in
46:36
Speaker 1: that sad place. And I realized I was just doing
46:39
Speaker 1: like so much and trying for this goal so much
46:42
Speaker 1: and I wasn't obtaining it. That I was just eating
46:44
Speaker 1: me alive inside. That sounds really depressed, but depressing, but
46:48
Speaker 1: I just needed a little break and to find what
46:50
Speaker 1: truly makes me happy.
46:52
Speaker 3: What I'm hearing you say is that you're listening to
46:55
Speaker 3: yourself and the amount of growth and like personal responsive
47:00
Speaker 3: and ownership over self that all of this takes. To
47:04
Speaker 3: be upfront with the fact that like things are different now,
47:07
Speaker 3: and different doesn't mean bad and I can still be
47:10
Speaker 3: great as I ebb and I flow and I pivot
47:13
Speaker 3: with the goalposts.
47:14
Speaker 2: That's truly admirable.
47:16
Speaker 1: Thank you. It was I felt like really silly at first,
47:19
Speaker 1: being telling everyone like, oh, I just don't know if
47:21
Speaker 1: I want to compete, and I was so worried like
47:23
Speaker 1: how people would judge me, and like, h are you
47:24
Speaker 1: even still a pro surfer? But I just I couldn't
47:28
Speaker 1: do it to myself anymore. When I would be in
47:29
Speaker 1: surf competitions and I would literally be asking myself in
47:32
Speaker 1: the water, why am I out here? I don't like this,
47:35
Speaker 1: I don't feel I don't feel good doing it, and
47:37
Speaker 1: I just felt like I was taking so many losses.
47:39
Speaker 1: And surfing is an amazing sport with the competitive side,
47:43
Speaker 1: as you're surfing against mother nature. There's heats where there's
47:46
Speaker 1: twenty five minutes where you do not catch a wave,
47:48
Speaker 1: like you rely on nature. And I just felt like
47:51
Speaker 1: I wasn't aligning myself with nature, and I maybe wasn't
47:54
Speaker 1: supposed to be doing what I was doing, and I
47:56
Speaker 1: was just forcing myself, forcing myself because I had these
47:58
Speaker 1: goals that I weren't reaching, and I just was like,
48:02
Speaker 1: I need a little break. I'm burnt. And my friends
48:04
Speaker 1: and my family were just like, you just seem super
48:06
Speaker 1: sad all the time, Like especially when I come back
48:08
Speaker 1: from contests. I would just be like, oh man, like
48:11
Speaker 1: this is this is bummer And I just didn't like
48:14
Speaker 1: how I was feeling, so I wanted a break.
48:17
Speaker 3: Are you enjoying the journey of training for the marathon?
48:20
Speaker 3: I love it, so that's but that's an indication, right,
48:24
Speaker 3: That's an indication that you're doing something that's in alignment
48:28
Speaker 3: with where you're at. If you're putting all of your
48:30
Speaker 3: energy into this journey that doesn't feel like it's serving you,
48:34
Speaker 3: you do have to take that step back and be
48:36
Speaker 3: like what am I doing here? Because the destination isn't
48:40
Speaker 3: going to be awesome. If the journey was hell.
48:42
Speaker 1: Well, that's my whole thing. Because I remember I think
48:45
Speaker 1: I was talking to I can't remember who it was,
48:48
Speaker 1: and I was like, I made the final last year
48:50
Speaker 1: at Sunset, which is a huge event. I didn't feel
48:53
Speaker 1: any any joy, so I was like, this is kind
48:56
Speaker 1: of scary, like and then I got invited to the
48:59
Speaker 1: vancying and I felt a lot more joy. There because
49:01
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I can't wait to pull in.
49:03
Speaker 1: But I just felt like even reaching that goal, and
49:06
Speaker 1: the year before I was second and Hawaii still didn't care.
49:08
Speaker 1: Like I just was like, I don't feel happy doing this.
49:12
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize it until the last contest in
49:15
Speaker 1: Florida last year. I was it was no ways, it
49:18
Speaker 1: was completely flat. There was like a hurricane right before,
49:21
Speaker 1: and I was like, I need a break from this.
49:23
Speaker 1: This is too much stress. I just felt like I
49:26
Speaker 1: was not the person I wanted to be. I didn't
49:28
Speaker 1: want to be like a caddy competitive female surfer, like
49:32
Speaker 1: I want to beat all you guys. I just wanted
49:34
Speaker 1: to just be happy, like doing what I love, not surfing.
49:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pivot, I like the PI pivot. Respect the pivot.
49:41
Speaker 3: You mentioned Surf Girls on Amazon. How did taking on
49:46
Speaker 3: that project feel for you?
49:49
Speaker 1: I was actually really nervous at first, to be honest,
49:51
Speaker 1: because I did The Ultimate Surfer with ABC and I
49:54
Speaker 1: was like full reality and I don't think I would
49:56
Speaker 1: ever want to do that again, just like reality was
49:58
Speaker 1: not for me. But I was really nervous. And when
50:02
Speaker 1: I talked to them about what the show is going
50:04
Speaker 1: to be, and there really were like, we just want
50:06
Speaker 1: to capture you guys in your element and show women empowerment.
50:10
Speaker 1: And it was so cool because two of my best
50:11
Speaker 1: friends were on the show and we just kind of
50:14
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun. And there was so many
50:16
Speaker 1: trials and errors in that show that like we all
50:19
Speaker 1: went through, and I think it taught all of us
50:21
Speaker 1: like that at the end of the day, at least
50:23
Speaker 1: we had each other to uplift each other. And that's
50:25
Speaker 1: where I kind of was when I was competing prior
50:29
Speaker 1: to that, I just felt like I was not a
50:31
Speaker 1: good competitive person. I just felt super grouchy at like
50:34
Speaker 1: all my competitors and I didn't I didn't like that feeling,
50:36
Speaker 1: and I just realized I just wasn't happy in myself,
50:39
Speaker 1: so I didn't want to be surrounded by that anymore.
50:43
Speaker 3: What changed for you after filming that? If anything?
50:49
Speaker 1: Nothing too Like nothing really I didn't want. I didn't
50:53
Speaker 1: watch the show. I can't watch myself on TV or anything.
50:58
Speaker 1: I cringed at myself. I'm like really hard on myself.
51:01
Speaker 1: But it was super cool to see all the positive
51:05
Speaker 1: We got a lot of positive feedback from it. It
51:07
Speaker 1: was really cool to see everyone really stoked and my
51:09
Speaker 1: whole thing was I'm so glad that there was a
51:11
Speaker 1: lot of women empowerment because I feel like we need that,
51:13
Speaker 1: especially in the individual sport. So I was really really
51:16
Speaker 1: happy and hopefully we get a season two. And it
51:19
Speaker 1: was nice because it was actually our real life. It
51:22
Speaker 1: wasn't planned or plodded or anything. They literally just came
51:25
Speaker 1: and hung out with us.
51:27
Speaker 3: You talked so beautifully about the excitement that you have
51:30
Speaker 3: about being able to make a positive impact on others.
51:34
Speaker 3: How does it feel as more and more people become
51:37
Speaker 3: familiar with your story and start following along.
51:42
Speaker 1: I have the craziest impact in the Probably the highlight
51:44
Speaker 1: of my whole year actually just happened like two weeks ago.
51:47
Speaker 1: I had this little girl named Hayden reach out to me.
51:50
Speaker 1: She has an identical hand to me, and she found
51:53
Speaker 1: out through the show and like through that, and I
51:56
Speaker 1: met her actually in California for the Supergirl contest and
51:59
Speaker 1: I spent the day with her. I had to come
52:00
Speaker 1: watch the contest. We were high fiving. She had like
52:03
Speaker 1: a sign up. It was so cute, and I lost
52:07
Speaker 1: like the third round, I can't remember, and she was
52:09
Speaker 1: on the beach and like just so excited that, Like
52:12
Speaker 1: I didn't care about the contest.
52:13
Speaker 4: I don't.
52:14
Speaker 1: I didn't. I was like, this is my this is
52:16
Speaker 1: the best thing that I could do, like for myself
52:19
Speaker 1: and for her. As selfish as it sound like, it
52:21
Speaker 1: really made me feel like, wow, this is so cool,
52:24
Speaker 1: Like surfing has taught you and showed you that you
52:28
Speaker 1: can help someone, and like that's my biggest goal. And
52:31
Speaker 1: the parents sent me like a super cool text message
52:33
Speaker 1: we have like these matching bracelets now, And that was
52:36
Speaker 1: the highlight. And that's something I'm so grateful about the
52:39
Speaker 1: show for because I was able to share my story
52:41
Speaker 1: and they let it share like it was truth for
52:44
Speaker 1: who I am. Instead of being like, oh, you know,
52:45
Speaker 1: make this sad story by your hand, they like, tell us,
52:48
Speaker 1: tell us how you feel. And yeah, I'm forever grateful
52:51
Speaker 1: for that moment for sure.
52:53
Speaker 3: So talking and being open to more people is something
52:57
Speaker 3: that feels purposeful and good for you.
52:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I that feeling and seeing that little girl
53:02
Speaker 1: like just so pumped and it just really made my
53:06
Speaker 1: whole I want to say that whole year. I was like, wow,
53:08
Speaker 1: that was such a cool moment. And her dad told
53:11
Speaker 1: me like they had never seen her this happy and
53:12
Speaker 1: like for me to have that input on someone is
53:15
Speaker 1: I would never think that that was possible, honestly, Like,
53:18
Speaker 1: I just want to leave someone smiling. I don't know
53:20
Speaker 1: I could like have that capability to like really help
53:23
Speaker 1: that little girl, and that was that was more than
53:26
Speaker 1: any like anything I could ask for.
53:27
Speaker 2: When you think about how you want to feel on
53:32
Speaker 2: marathon mourning, what comes to mind.
53:37
Speaker 1: I want to feel excited for like I don't know,
53:40
Speaker 1: I actually have no idea how I'm gonna feel. And
53:42
Speaker 1: I feel like there's like so much lead up to it,
53:44
Speaker 1: like I've been training so hard. But then I'm kind
53:47
Speaker 1: of like I just want to go for the ride
53:49
Speaker 1: on this, Like I want to stop.
53:50
Speaker 4: And I love New York.
53:51
Speaker 1: I want to look around, Like I feel like it's
53:54
Speaker 1: the most beautiful marathon because you get to run through
53:57
Speaker 1: this such an energetic city and I just want to
54:00
Speaker 1: have no air pods. I just want to feel the
54:02
Speaker 1: love and I can't wait. I'm a little nervous for sure.
54:06
Speaker 1: I'm like, what if I can't do it?
54:09
Speaker 3: If you were nervous towing the starting line for your
54:12
Speaker 3: first marathon, I would argue that you're not human.
54:16
Speaker 4: No, I'm nervous.
54:17
Speaker 1: I was just k talking at Ellie from Shava yesterday
54:19
Speaker 1: and I was like, definitely getting the little butterflies, Like
54:22
Speaker 1: it's the same feelings as competing, but it's so special because.
54:25
Speaker 4: I'm not going to win the thing.
54:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice like to not be like I can't wait,
54:31
Speaker 1: like having the pressure like for surfing, I had the
54:33
Speaker 1: pressure to like win this. I just have the pressure
54:35
Speaker 1: to compete and finish. So I'm like this, but I
54:40
Speaker 1: love the training, I love how I feel running, and
54:42
Speaker 1: I'm really really excited.
54:44
Speaker 3: Someone goes to your Instagram page, they see a surfer
54:48
Speaker 3: who is super passionate about her sport and loving life
54:52
Speaker 3: in Hawaii.
54:53
Speaker 2: But when you look in the mirror, what is it
54:55
Speaker 2: that you see looking back at you?
54:58
Speaker 1: Ooh, this is a deep question. I feel like the
55:00
Speaker 1: mirror mirror on the wall. I don't I just want
55:03
Speaker 1: to be a good person when I look in the mirror. Yeah,
55:06
Speaker 1: and that's what I hope to share on my on
55:08
Speaker 1: my Instagram. But again everyone thought, it's like you're still positive,
55:11
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, that's like I do my best,
55:13
Speaker 1: of course, but we all have our struggles and I
55:15
Speaker 1: just don't like to post negative things or like what
55:18
Speaker 1: I'm going through, maybe I should so that people know.
55:20
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's I look at myself and I hope
55:24
Speaker 1: that I can be a better person every day, whether it's.
55:26
Speaker 3: What you do on the days that you don't feel
55:28
Speaker 3: like super positive or optimistic or shiny like yesterday.
55:32
Speaker 1: So yesterday, sure, it was a really tough day. I
55:35
Speaker 1: haven't felt like that in a little while. I was like, man,
55:37
Speaker 1: what am I doing? I just felt so like torn.
55:40
Speaker 1: Some of my friends are competing in Brazil right now,
55:42
Speaker 1: so I had a little bit of that fomo, and
55:43
Speaker 1: then I was like, what am I making the right decisions?
55:46
Speaker 4: But what I do to cheer.
55:48
Speaker 1: Myself up is I hang out with either my friends
55:51
Speaker 1: or family, or I go surfing or I saw on
55:54
Speaker 1: it ice. I try not to let myself throw pity parties,
55:57
Speaker 1: like that's a big thing for me. I really don't
56:00
Speaker 1: like to like feel sorry for myself. And I think
56:02
Speaker 1: as I spent so much of my time feeling sorry
56:04
Speaker 1: for myself as a kid with my little hand, that
56:06
Speaker 1: now I'm just like, let's knock this off and let's
56:09
Speaker 1: do something.
56:09
Speaker 4: Let's cope with it in another way. So I hang
56:12
Speaker 4: with my friends or I don't know.
56:14
Speaker 1: I just try to like hang with I have a
56:16
Speaker 1: lot of rescue animals, so I do spend time with them,
56:18
Speaker 1: but some days are harder than others. So just finding
56:20
Speaker 1: a way to I don't know, spend spend time and
56:23
Speaker 1: cheer yourself up.
56:25
Speaker 2: Can you tell me about your rescue animals.
56:27
Speaker 4: Yes, I have like a zoo.
56:28
Speaker 1: I have four rescue cats and two rescue dogs. Oh
56:32
Speaker 1: my goodness, I have zoom calls and like my cat
56:35
Speaker 1: just like walks through. But I might have I might
56:38
Speaker 1: have made them stay in the room because we weren't
56:40
Speaker 1: like what's that noise?
56:42
Speaker 4: But my dog like two dogs.
56:44
Speaker 1: One was abused, an abuse hunting dog, so when I
56:48
Speaker 1: first got him, I had to sit with him underneath
56:51
Speaker 1: the bed like he would stay there for about six
56:53
Speaker 1: months and finally would come up to eat. And then
56:55
Speaker 1: the other dog I had named Buddy, he was starved
56:59
Speaker 1: from three days away from dying, so when I got
57:01
Speaker 1: him I had to lift him up and take him
57:04
Speaker 1: to the bathroom and seck because he had no energy.
57:06
Speaker 1: And there are my pride and joys, or my little babies.
57:10
Speaker 2: How long have you had them?
57:12
Speaker 1: I've had Reggie for two and a half years and
57:14
Speaker 1: I've had Buddy for a year and a half.
57:16
Speaker 3: The way that we wind down on hurdle right now,
57:18
Speaker 3: if you had the opportunity to offer yourself a piece
57:21
Speaker 3: of advice back when you were younger, dealing with the
57:24
Speaker 3: bullying and elementary and middle school, knowing what you know now,
57:28
Speaker 3: having your current perspective, what advice would you tell yourself
57:33
Speaker 3: during that hurdle moment.
57:35
Speaker 1: I would constantly tell myself to love myself and like,
57:38
Speaker 1: embrace who I am. That's the one advice that I
57:41
Speaker 1: wish I could wish I knew then because at that
57:44
Speaker 1: time I didn't love myself and I thought I was weird.
57:46
Speaker 1: So that's my biggest advice. And if you're going through bullying,
57:50
Speaker 1: just love yourself and be who you are.
57:52
Speaker 2: Be who you are. I'm so happy that we're able
57:55
Speaker 2: to do this, Brianna.
57:56
Speaker 3: For those that don't follow you just yet on social media,
57:59
Speaker 3: how do they keep up with you?
57:59
Speaker 2: You give us the details.
58:02
Speaker 1: Give us the tea. You can follow me on Instagram.
58:04
Speaker 1: ITH's just Freana, Cope, nothing crazy, and yeah that's it.
58:08
Speaker 1: I'm excited and thank you so much for having me,
58:10
Speaker 1: Thanks for letting me be the second surfer second server.
58:15
Speaker 2: I'm sure not the last.
58:17
Speaker 3: I'm over at Hurdle Podcast at Emily Abadi another hurdle conquered.
58:22
Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.