Everyone who is someone in surfing heads to the North Shore every winter. It’s the place pros call home for a few months of the year. Every sponsor, photographer, videographer, magazine, and fan follows every wave, every tube, every wipeout, every acaí bowl, every photo shoot and every crazy idea or activity that goes down here.
But there isn’t as much chatter about the women taking their own place the lineup; the big wave chargers that surf alongside those pros in even the biggest swells. Who are they?
There are some amazing women that are finally getting much deserved recognition. Surfers like Keala, Paige, Jamilah, Andrea, and Maya are recognizable by their first name alone. But what about the women you haven’t heard about?
There is an underground group of lady big wave surfers that ride giants on the North Shore. They’re a piece of our culture that doesn’t get the same attention or coverage, sometimes going completely unnoticed. They’re soul surfers that do it for the love of the sport and a true passion for big waves. They don’t care about being in the spotlight or on the cover of magazines. They just want to catch some good waves and try to improve their surfing a little more each day.
Take Brittany Gomulka, originally from Ocean County, New Jersey, for example. Brittany moved to the North Shore of Oahu in 2005. In 2012 she started training to surf big waves. All the while, she’s been battling Lyme Disease for nearly a decade and has almost made a full recovery. She is lucky to be still be surfing thanks to an amazing doctor, a healthy lifestyle and clean diet.
Polly Ralda is a Guatemalan charger that started to surf when she was 15-years-old. It wasn’t until she moved to Hawaii almost five years ago that her passion for big waves started. Now she gets to surf in her backyard as much as she wants. Her favorite wave is Waimea Bay and that is where you can typically find her, either training on the beach, rock running, swimming, free diving or surfing huge waves.
Raquel Heckert, on the other hand, is a free surfer from Brazil who just notched her first winter here. She learned to surf at the age of twelve and from the moment she stood up on a board for the first time she decided she would never stop surfing. It became her passion, her inspiration and her happiest challenge.
Silvia Nabuco is a former professional cyclist and triathlete. When she finished her career as a triathlete she decided to learn to surf. It was love at first wave. For the first couple years she would only surf on the weekends because São Paulo (her hometown) is two hours from the ocean. Here she is 15 years later.
And of course there’s Makani Adric, who was born and raised on the North Shore. Makani started surfing at the age of seven, but it wasn’t until she was 15 that she realized she loved surfing big waves. The very first big wave she got was at Waimea Bay not too long after. No safety vest, just a bikini, her board and the feeling of excitement.
And there are plenty more women just like them with their own fascinating stories. Ladies like Emi Erickson and Wrenna Delgado are North Shore locals just like Makani. Others come every winter for the waves like the rest of the surf world: Silvia Nabuco, Raquel Heckert, Nicole Pacelli are just a few. But wherever it is they call home, each one of these surfers has an amazing and very interesting story to tell with lives just as fascinating as their surfing. These are stories worth sharing, with dreams and goals that deserve all of our support.
