US surf star Kolohe Andino’s new lease of life

Kolohe Andino seemed destined to be a pro surfer.

The American followed in the footsteps of his father, Dino Andino, who was the USA national champion in 1990 and used to compete on the world tour.

Kolohe was quick to make a name for himself in the water too. Andino (junior) has nine national amateur titles to his name, and in 2012 qualified for the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) at the age of 18.

Fast forward to December 2022 and Kolohe is now a father to a one-year-old girl named Noelle.

It's clear that she has totally reshaped her father’s world and re-defined his approach to competition.

“You just feel like you have a bigger purpose in life,” he tells Olympics.com. “The whole experience of watching my daughter being born and what my wife (Madison) went through to give me this child.

“It puts a lot in perspective. Whereas before, competing, winning events, and winning heats was number one, and now it's just the health and safety of my wife and my daughter. So that being said, it has simplified my life a lot.”

Andino had an incredible 2019 season, which saw him qualify as the first American surfer for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. But even so, the Olympian has had one monkey he hasn’t been able to get off his back.

Despite being on the elite tour for ten years, Andino has never won a CT event. He’s come runner-up five times and third 10 times.

He’s not given up on that dream by any stretch of the imagination, but fatherhood seems to have helped him adjust his outlook.

“Things that kind of mattered before don't really matter at all. And you know, I’ve got a lot on my plate as far as being the best that I can be and being a world champ and Olympic gold medallist. But it's just really simple. We have a really simple life. It's been great.”

When questioned about his desire and hunger for success, the words are quick to come out of his mouth.

“The fire's definitely still there,” Andino says unequivocally. “I feel like I'm still doing my best and continuing to improve. The guys that are in the top five going for the title or in the top ten, I feel like I'm easily as good as them and I think for me, it’s about just training out that negativity in my own head.

“I've had an awesome career, but just being a competitor, you end up being a little insecure if you don't reach your goals as far as event wins and world titles. So just I’m training out that negativity. I still have a lot of great years ahead of me is probably the most important thing.”

Andino: A newfound respect for women

Seeing his wife Madison give birth and being a parent has also adjusted his view on the opposite sex.

“The amount of respect that I have for women… Everyone says when you're just a young boy or kid, like, oh, women are the strongest, and I'm like “yeah, yeah, right, whatever, like obviously, men are the strongest,” but then when you actually watch what they go through, with their bodies, with the pregnancy and then to birth a child, it's like now like when I go to the doctor and they ask what's your pain tolerance? I'm always like, oh, I watched my, my daughter come out of my wife, so I'll just say like a one always because nothing's as gnarly. So just my respect for them is just crazy.”

It's not just about female athletes either.

“To get back to being a top performer in their respective sport is insane. But just women in general. All mothers. It's crazy that women want to sign up for that because I can never imagine having a child and then, once they have it, it's go time. Boom.

“Just being a mom and never sleeping. All these crazy things, you're just like, oh my gosh.

“And I'm sneaking away. My wife, she's like, “Go surf. Get out, get out of here. You're in the way.”"

Kolohe Andino: Olympics – past and future

Andino is a proud and patriotic American.

It’s evident in the way he speaks and the way he so passionately sings the national anthem at events like the 2022 ISA World Surfing Games at Huntington beach.

He loves his country, and he loves representing the red, white and blue flag.

On top of that, he’s a huge sports fan. So the Olympics are a combination of two key things in his life.

A year and a half on from surfing’s debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Andino still lights up speaking about his experience.

“It was amazing. I think it was probably the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of as far as being an Olympic athlete. I think competing for America is really special and then also, the village. That was the coolest part of the whole experience. It was like Zootopia, the movie, with all the different animals. They go into Zootopia and it's all these animals altogether, but it's just like craziness, but really cool. It was pretty much exactly like that.

“When I went inside, it was like, all these specimens of people. Men and women from their countries, in their respective sports. I was probably the shortest man there. It was just all these huge men and women, all ripped up and beautiful looking. It was just it was crazy.

“I was just in awe, just like, oh, my gosh, this is the coolest thing ever. It's kind of hard to explain, but it was really cool,” Andino says.

Surfing’s second Olympic appearance will be held at one of the iconic waves in the world, Teahupo’o, Tahiti.

Like most athletes, Andino is trying to take things one step at a time. But there’s no doubt he sees Paris 2024 is in his future.

“It just feels so far away from me. But obviously, (the goal is) to win gold. I've surfed there, my whole life, ten years on tour. I’ve been there 15 to 20 times. So, I want to win the gold but [have] so many steps to doing it.”

The 2023 WSL CT season is the tier-one, priority pathway for the world’s best surfers to qualify for Paris Olympics. His best shot of making it will be by finishing the WSL CT season as the highest-ranked USA male surfer.

“Before Paris? Well qualifying for Paris. Even if I don't finish world number one next year on tour, but if I qualify for Paris, I'll be really stoked.”

_“_The waves will hopefully be really good and yeah, it's of like one of those things where you just think, if you're watching it (Paris 2024) at home and on the TV, you'll just be bummed, you know? So that's what I try to remind myself about.”