This is the third part in a series on young wahine surfers. Read the first story on Erin Brooks and the second story on Moana Jones Wong.
At just 17, Pua DeSoto is bringing her fierce style of surfing to women’s professional surfing.
The night before the Haleiwa Challenger started, DeSoto took a moment out of her packed schedule to talk with Spectrum News Hawaii about her burgeoning surfing career.
DeSoto told Spectrum News Hawaii that she started surfing at Waikiki when she was 5 months old.
“I was on my dad’s lap,” DeSoto said. “When I was about 3, I stood up on my first wave by myself.”
When she was 11 years old, DeSoto said she decided she wanted to be a professional surfer.
The up-and-comer is the daughter of Duane DeSoto, a world champion longboard, and Malia Kaaihue, a business owner. She is one of eight kids.
“I love a big family. I don't know how I could live life without it. It's weird when I travel or when I'm away. I end up missing the chaos,” said DeSoto.
She said her seven siblings are supportive of her ambitions and also push her to be better.
DeSoto’s family calls Makaha home, but during the winter surf season, DeSoto said she has been living with her family on the North Shore in order to train on the best waves. This winter is the second year that her family has relocated to the North Shore, and she said her two little brothers now want to follow in her surfing footsteps.
“My two little brothers have wanted to follow me, so it's also getting them out here (to the North Shore) and getting them to experience it and get their names out there and let them kind of experience it a little bit earlier than I'm experiencing it, because I guess I'm kind of behind the ball compared to a lot of other people who have been coming here since they've been 10,” said DeSoto.
In December, she moved from her family’s North Shore spot into the Vans’ surf house, spending some time “on her own.”
In order to train, DeSoto surfs for about two hours in the evenings — “until it’s pitch black” — after spending her days at Kamehameha Schools, where she is a senior. While she is at school, she will go to the gym and “get a little workout in.” Or she will squeeze in a hundred push-ups whenever she has time, before she paddles out or before she goes to bed. On weekends, she will surf two or three times each day.
During her junior year, DeSoto attended online school through Brigham Young University, which allowed her to train all day and travel to surf. She said she traveled to South Africa, the Maldives, Mexico, Tahiti, California, Florida and the neighbor islands.
While she has surfed around the world, her favorite wave is right here on Oahu: it is Makaha.
“It’s my home break,” said DeSoto. “I grew up surfing there.”
The fact that her father grew up surfing at Makaha and won his longboard world title there furthers her connection to the surf break.
“Makaha means fierce,” she added. “That’s something in the water I try to be a lot, fierce, and to push myself and the limits of surfing.”
DeSoto described surfing in the ocean as her church.
“I love just being free. And it's the place where I can be the most me,” said DeSoto. “I can just go and be calm.”
She said being a young woman in surfing is powerful.
“As a Native Hawaiian, we have the mana of it being our cultural practice,” said Desoto, using the Hawaiian word for power and strength.
While surfing has been a male-dominant sport during her lifetime, she said in ancient Hawaii, that wasn’t the case. Instead, Hawaiian stories feature goddesses who used surf competitions to win “valleys and valleys of land.”
“In the old days, when our kings and queens and goddesses and gods were surfing, it was always the woman dominating,” said DeSoto.
She looks up to the late Rell Sunn, who is known as the "Queen of Makaha."
“She’s one of the first female surfers to bring back surfing as a female to Hawaii and she would compete against the men and kick their butts,” said DeSoto. “She had that grace and fierceness and she’s from Makaha.”
DeSoto has a long list of surf competitions ahead of her. The Haleiwa International Open starts at the end of this month, and the Buffalo Keaulana starts in February. She then has a brief break in competitions, but in May, the Challenger Series starts, which will be a hectic month as she will also take her final exams and graduate from high school.
As for her long-term goals, DeSoto said she hopes to be an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. She also hopes to “raise the Hawaiian flag up around the world.”
DeSoto also likes to give back to her community. With her father’s nonprofit Nā Kama Kai, she teaches kids about ocean safety. The Saturday before speaking with Spectrum News Hawaii, she said she and her family gave out about 50 brand-new and refurbished surfboards to kids who live on the West Side.
“On the West Side, nobody has surfboards. They’re coming to the beach, surfing in their BVDs or panties and they're just doing their thing and getting boards from the uncles on the beach,” said DeSoto. “So it’s special to give out (boards).”
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.