This is the fifth part in a series on young wahine surfers. Read the other stories about Erin Brooks, Moana Jones Wong, Pua DeSoto and Ēwelei‘ula Wong.
Bettylou Sakura Johnson, 17, grew up in Haleiwa on Oahu, where she learned to surf when she was 6. She is now a rising star in the surf world, joining the 2023 Championship Tour.
She told Spectrum News Hawaii that her parents loved surfing and always wanted her to love it, too.
“My parents would always have me in the ocean,” said Johnson.
However, before she started surfing, she was a gymnast and dirt-bike rider.
“Those were my two main sports and then surfing … unfolded when I got older, around seven, eight and nine. That's when I really started to surf more,” said Johnson.
Until she aged out at 12, she competed in the Menehune Surf Contest at her home break, winning multiple first-place trophies.
In 2019, Johnson traveled for the first time for a surf contest, heading to Lower Trestles, California, to compete in the USA Surfing Championship. She clinched first place in the U-14 girls division. It was then that she decided she wanted to be a professional surfer.
Fast forward to 2021, and Johnson won the Haleiwa Challenger when she was only 16, beating out five-time World Champion and Olympic gold medalist Carissa Moore.
“I felt really grateful and happy because I felt like I won for my whole community,” said Johnson. “It was pouring rain that day, and everyone was actually still there to cheer me on. I think that's what made it very special and memorable. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.”
Winning the Haleiwa Challenger earned Johnson a spot on the 2022 Championship Tour, making her the youngest person on the tour.
“It’s the best thing in the world because you get to surf and travel,” said Johnson.
During her five months on the tour, she competed on waves at Pipeline and Sunset in Hawaii, Supertubos in Portugal, Bell’s Beach in Victoria, Australia and Margaret River in Western Australia.
Unfortunately, the World Surf League cut Johnson in May, halfway through the season, when the women’s Championship Tour was reduced from 18 to 12 surfers.
Still, it didn’t stop her love of surfing. While she said competing is hard mentally, she is focused on not letting it feel like a job and enjoying the waves. Her passion paid off; she was the top qualifier in the 2022 Challenger Series, earning her a spot on the 2023 Championship Tour.
“What I enjoy most about surfing would probably be just the feeling of going super fast down the line. Or just being in the barrel and pumping through it,” said Johnson.
She said Haleiwa Beach Park, her home break, is her favorite wave on Oahu.
“I think it really shows if you love the wave or not because the wave will give you beatings if you don't respect it. Haleiwa has always been like that. I’ve always loved that wave for its power,” said Johnson. “There’s always been so many great memories there.”
Now she starts her days by stretching and checking the waves at Haleiwa. If the waves are good, she will go surfing for a couple of hours, take a break to eat and then go back out to surf more.
Johnson has been in home school for two years. She made the switch at the same time many schools were shifting to remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I'm doing homeschool, and I try to fit in at least an hour every day,” said Johnson, who added that she hopes to get her high school diploma by next summer, but is currently dedicating most of her time to surfing.
She said home school has helped her with time management and requires her to be self-driven.
To train for surf competitions, Johnson works with Kahea Hart, who runs Hawaii Surf and Performance on the North Shore of Oahu.
“He does a lot of breath work to help our lungs, to hold our breaths longer,” said Johnson.
She said the training helps with “high intensity times” when she is getting pounded by waves and must remain calm.
Johnson also works with Hart on weights “to get stronger to surf bigger waves.”
“I actually recently just got my first gun,” said Johnson, referring to a surfboard designed specifically to catch big waves. “When you see a big wave coming in, and you think you're gonna get caught and that feeling of just paddling super hard, breathing and looking at the wave coming towards you is the most scariest feeling but … you feel alive.”
As for being a young woman in surfing, Johnson said she considers it an honor, since the women before her paved the way. In the generation before her, she says Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore, Laura Enever and Coco Ho helped create more opportunities for women. Before them, she names Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly and Lisa Anderson as surfers who shattered glass ceilings.
“Those girls in front of us have helped competitive surfing,” said Johnson. “They definitely helped break barriers. They were the ones who really started the whole thing; they’re the ones who showed that girls can surf too.”
Now, there is more equality in surfing. In 2019, the World Surf League started awarding equal prize money to male and female surfers. In 2020, women competed for the first time at Pipeline.
She said many of the aforementioned surfers have had conversations with her, telling her to take advantage of the opportunities she has that they didn’t.
Johnson is excited to seize the moment and said she also can’t wait to watch the next generation of women surfers follow in her and her peers’ footsteps.
She loves encouraging younger surfers and helps every year with the Menehune Contest at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park.
“I love to give back to a community where they've helped me rise to who I am today,” said Johnson.
She has helped the Menehune Contest by packing some of the more than 500 goodie bags needed for the young athletes, printing shirts with fish, building tents and judging grom heats.
In 2023, Johnson has a long list of surf competitions ahead of her, starting with the first five contests of the Championship Tour. The first stop on the tour will be the Billabong Pipeline Tour, which the World Surf League will hold between Jan. 29 and Feb. 10, 2023. She hopes to make the mid-season cut and qualify for the 2024 Championship Tour.
As for the long-term goals, Johnson wants to win a world title — or hopefully a couple of world titles.
“I'd like to have more than one but it's definitely a race to the top and it's a lot of hard work and dedication and time, tears and sweat, so I'm just preparing for that,” said Johnson.
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her ideas and feedback at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.