Sophia and I are five years apart. We both grew up on the island of Kauai with our mom, dad, and older sister Madeline. Sophia was born with Spina Bifida, a spinal cord injury that affects the way she walks. When Sophia learned to walk, the doctors gave her braces for her feet and crutches to help her maintain her balance. Although she was born with this, she has always been strong and determined to walk on her own.
In fact, Sophia is the strongest person I know. From the moment she was born, all the way through high school, she was in and out of hospitals on a regular basis; along with seizures, tests, and scans, she has had 22 surgeries overall. But despite all the hospital work and visits, I’ve always known her to have the biggest smile on her face — her appreciation for life has inspired me in mine.
Since an early age, I have done well in physical activity with soccer, surfing, and most activities kids take for granted growing up. It was always hard for me to see my sister struggle with things that came to me so easily. As time went on, I started winning and getting recognition for surfing, but there was always this guilt I felt thinking of Sophia at home. I didn’t even want to share my accomplishments around the house when she was home. Ultimately, our relationship was tense and we struggled to relate in our younger years because it was hard to understand each other.
When I turned 17, I moved to California. At the time, my main sponsor, Vans, was doing a series known as Pass the Bucket where they highlighted an ambassador or team rider that has been involved in or affected by a unique situation. As soon as I moved over, they asked me and Sophia to be apart of the series. During that time, Sophia was coming into town to visit and I had always wanted to go surfing with her, so we signed up for a Life Rolls On event in San Diego. Life Rolls On is an organization started by Jesse Billauer to bring a surfing experience to those that are quadrapeligic and parapeligic. In addition to signing up, I decide to call up Vans because I thought it was be a great piece to add to my Pass the Bucket episode.
With that event, and that phone call, both our lives changed.
It was an emotional experience for me to see Sophia ride waves and accomplish something we all didn’t think was possible. All the love and support was incredible and resulted in a huge boost of confidence and happiness that I hadn’t seen before in her. It was uplifting for her. It was uplifting for our family.
Since this experience, our relationship has grown. It has brought our whole family closer. Now, surfing is something that we all share. I feel that surfing has bridged the gap of understanding that we struggled with as kids. To say that I am grateful would be an understatement.
