I’ve always had a passion and fondness for sports which have a little fear factor and a big exhilaration component. Action sports have played a big part of my life. I left home at 18, leaving behind the chilling winters of the East Coast of Canada in search of new adventures and in lure of skiing the big mountains on the West Coast. So I took a drive across Canada in mid January with two friends with only one vision in mind … to do some big mountain skiing! I was lucky to spend three full seasons in Whistler and probably skied up to 120 days a year. I mean, we skied our asses off:) getting enough sleep was no my motivation at the time. I worked in the evenings so I could ski all day and no matter what time I went to bed, I was up to hit the mountain for some fresh tracks on any given powder day. I coached the kids ski racing on Blackcomb on the weekends to get my pass and I was sorted. When you’re young and noone’s depending on you, all you need is a pass and a good pair of skis, some friends ready to charge the mountain with you and your having the time of your life. I didn’t think twice about any of the dangers of what and where I was skiing. I mean, how bad can it hurt if there’s so much snow.
After my stint in Whistler, my heart was stolen by another sport which soon was all consuming and all I wanted to do. The wind and waves were calling me. I started traveling to the Oregon to the Columbia River Gorge every time I could. After soon releasing this passion was leaving me, I packed up my things, signed up for college in Portland and moved myself to the charming town of Hood River, one the world’s well known windsurfing hubs. That is where I found my tribe as they say. Windsurfing is one of these sports where if you want to do it and do it well, it pretty much as to be your life. To go windsurfing once in a while is not going to get you anywhere, at least not where I wanted to be which was in the waves of Hawaii. I definitely didn’t need anyone pushing me to go sailing aka windsurfing anytime the wind was up. I was known for hitting the water at first light on the River when the wind was blowing and spent most windy days putting in marathon sessions on the water. Five, six hours was nothing. We were a crew of friends with a common passion that was unstoppable.
After going to school and sailing on the River for a couple of years, many of my peers and I decided to hit the big stage and make the move to the North Shore of Maui. Being from Monreal and growing up skiing, the powerful waves of Hawaii were foreign to me. Although I did spend the first year of my life in Hawaii, I didn’t have the luxury of growing up near the ocean and the waves. I distinctly remember standing at Hookipa, the most famous windsurfing beach in the world, on a big day wondering how a girl from Montreal was ever going to be good enough to ride out there. Well, as with anything practice makes perfect and working on your skills, it didn’t take long before I braved the ocean and it’s powerful surf to eventually spending my days sailing at Hookipa.
Playing in the surf is fun but it can also be stressful when it gets big or the wind turns offshore and you’re at the mercy of nature. Things can go sideways quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing or head out and don’t have the skills to handle the conditions. When you get nailed by a big set, you better not let anxiety sink into your brain. You need to stay calm, hold your breath and just go with the flow. All you can do is come up for a breath and duck underneath the next waves and wait for a lull in between sets to collect your gear or swim for it:) unless you have the unfortunate experience of getting slammed onto the rocks and hope that not ALL your equipment is broken or shredded to pieces and that you don’t end up with reef and rocks cuts everyone. If it sounds stressful, that because it was.
When they say have respect for the ocean, that’s because you must know that if you want to play there, you need to be aware of the possible dangers and consequences associated with it power and unpredictability.
Here are a few images I shot as part of a personal project I started and have not finished as our lives got interrupted by a little thing called Covid. Hoping to continue this project this year and will keep adding to my collection.
