Erin Brooks: The resilient surfer behind the image of a teenage dream
Canada's teen star spoke to Olympics.com about the challenging situations she has had to overcome over the past year, from being separated from an ill parent to losing her childhood home, managing her globe-trotting lifestyle, and exchanging DMs with Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira.
Surfing
If there was a ranking of teenage dreams coming true, Erin Brooks’ lifestyle would be up at the top.
The Canadian 16-year-old spends 10 months of the year on the road, surfing at the most exotic locations, learning new aerial tricks and exchanging messages with Brazilian superstars Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira.
But while Brooks has enjoyed more perks than most teens, she has also faced more adversity than many – and all of that packed in the span of a year.
From losing her childhood home to wildfires and a lengthy separation from her mother who was undergoing cancer treatment, to having her own future as a competitive surfer in limbo, the past months have tested Brooks’ resilience.
“I'm just trying to stay positive through it all," Brooks told Olympics.com. "Whenever I feel sad or angry, I just throw it in the water and try to push harder through my surfing."
Now with the worst behind her, the Canadian aerial sensation is gearing up to soar once again.
Erin Brooks’ dream teenage lifestyle
Erin Brooks remembers her first wave vividly.
She was nine years old and had just moved to Hawaii from Texas with her family. A surf lesson was one of her first initiations to the island state and its lifestyle. As it later turned out, that casual lesson would split her life into a before and after.
“From the first wave, I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Brooks said. “It was in Lahaina, Maui, at a wave called Breakwall, and it was a super sunny day with crystal clear water and there was even a turtle. And I was like, 'Wow, this is so cool and people get to do it every day'. And that's what I do now, so it's cool.”
What Brooks does, to be exact, is travel the world for most of the year, jetting from Hawaii to Bali and Tahiti, competing at international events and bumping fists with the legends of the sport.
She shot into this spotlight before she was 12 years old and is particularly known for her aerial mastery. Aerials are a standout skill among female and male surfers alike, and Brooks is honing with her own skill set with an impeccable work ethic - and a bit of help from some surfing superstars.
Olympic champion Italo Ferreira and three-time world champion Gabriel Medina, both from Brazil, are just some of the top names sending encouraging words to the Canadian teenager.
“They watch my videos on Instagram and then they send me tips over the DMs, how I can make it better,” Brooks said. “They actually give me tips on airs and how I can make it better, so I think that's super cool that they would go out of their way to help me.”
Medina also shares his know-how when the two stay at the same sponsored house on the North Shore of Oahu during the winter months.
“It is a dream to travel the world and get to compete,” Brooks said. “I'm so lucky that this is my job, pretty much, and I try to take in every moment and learn from everything, every win, every loss, every trip.”
A lonelier road for Erin Brooks
Brooks seems to have the surfing lifestyle down to perfection, so much so that even its drawbacks do not faze her.
“One of the things that I've had to learn is how to sleep on the aeroplane, but I'm so small that it's pretty easy," Brooks said with a laugh. "I can just curl up in the little seats."
The teen has also found a solution to the other common downfalls of surfing life, cooking and laundry. As both her parents are retired and travel with her, they have graciously taken on those chores while she rests after long hours of training sessions.
In recent months, however, the Brooks family entourage has been one person short as compared to the past.
While Brooks and her father Jeff continued their globe-trotting quest to find the best waves, the surfer's mother Michelle has stayed behind at home to undergo cancer treatment.
“It was definitely hard for me because she wasn't able to travel with us," Brooks said. "She pretty much had to quarantine for a whole year and normally we all travel together, my mom, dad and I, and it was definitely a lot different. I still was able to FaceTime her and call her before every one of my heats and she was able to watch me on TV, so that helped us a little bit, but it was definitely hard not having her with us all year."
The 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, which were held in Arecibo, Puerto Rico from 23 February to 3 March were the first competition where Michelle was able to re-join her daughter and husband on the road.
“It's really cool because she didn't get to go anywhere with us last year," Brooks said. "It was my first year on the Challenger Series, so she was pretty bummed out to miss that, but this is her first trip back, so I think she's just really happy to be with us and be a whole family again."
A childhood memory in ashes
At the same time as Brooks had to learn to travel the world as a duo instead of a trio, the teenager received more unsettling news.
The family’s house in Lahaina burned down during the wildfires that ravaged Maui in August 2023. More than 100 people lost their lives and more than 2,200 structures, the overwhelming majority of them residential, burned down or were damaged.
“We lost our whole entire house," Brooks said. "It all burned down and it was so sad because I had so many memories there because that's where I first fell in love with surfing. Even the surf break where I learned all of the stuff, and all the shops and restaurants, they all burnt to the ground, so a lot of memories have burnt down."
Fortunately for the Brooks family, no one was at the house during the fire.
Brooks was also able to salvage her surfing mementos as the family had previously moved most of their personal belongings from the house in Maui to the North Shore. The family made Oahu their primary residence when Brooks started getting better at surfing and wanted to challenge herself on the bigger waves.
Erin Brooks proudly sporting the maple leaf
While Brooks’ home base in Hawaii helped her to shoot into the top echelons of surfing at lightning speed, it indirectly also put her competitive future in jeopardy.
Brooks was born and raised in the United States, but her grandfather was born and raised in Montreal and her father is a dual American-Canadian citizen. She applied to become a Canadian citizen by descent, but due to the intricacies of the country's immigration laws concerning descendants who are living abroad, her citizenship was still not approved when she took part in the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
The International Surfing Association reviewed Brooks’ citizenship status after the competition, in which she finished second behind Pan American Games champion Tatiana Weston-Webb, and decided to suspend her eligibility to compete as a Canadian.
After several months of uncertainty – including her application initially getting turned down - Brooks received her Canadian citizenship in January 2024 with the help of parliament member Jenny Kwan.
“Having my Canadian citizenship, I'm so glad that I got it because it was a little bit of a struggle, but I had so many great people helping me and I just had to have faith in them that it would happen," Brooks said. "I'm glad that I can now compete for Canada and be a Canadian along with my family."
Getting Canadian citizenship also opened the door for Brooks to bid for a Paris 2024 quota. She made that bid at the final Olympic surfing qualifier, the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, with her mum by her side.
As in the previous edition, Brooks fell out of the main round after her second heat, but unlike her feisty uphill climb through the next 11 repechage heats to the women’s final in 2023, in Puerto Rico she was eliminated after her second repechage heat.
It was a devastating setback for Brooks who has surfed the next Olympic venue, Teahupo’o, since she was 11 and was a strong medal contender on the infamous Tahitian wave. And yet, hours after her defeat, Brooks was already in fighting mode again and, true to her nature, looking ahead to the next challenge to tackle.
“It would have been so cool to compete at Teahupo'o, a big left-hand barrel. I feel like I would be very comfortable there and I would have had a chance to maybe win a medal, but I can't let that get me down. I got to focus on what I have coming up next year," Brooks said. "Hopefully I can qualify for the Championship Tour and also LA (2028).
“I want to have fun and push myself as hard as I can and be the best surfer that I can be.”