Olympic Day 2024: Surfing late bloomers on catching a wave while catching up, and why it is never too late to start a new sport
Think you are too late to jump on a surfboard? National team surfers who also had a late start in the sport share their tips for how to catch up quick - and maybe even wave your country's flag at major competitions.
Surfing
Costa Rican surfer Carlos Munoz had his daughter on a surfboard by the time she was two months old.
Two-time world champion Filipe Toledo, son of prominent Brazilian surfer Ricardo Toledo, joined his dad on the waves at 10 months old and was surfing independently by the time he was four. Olympic champion Carissa Moore had her first lesson at age 5.
Latvia’s Santa Vevere was a bit older than that when she first tried the sport.
“I started when I was 20 something,” she told Olympics.com. “That was the first try.”
Vevere is not a lone late bloomer in the world of competitive surfing that is brimming with sport prodigies who have been riding the waves since they were toddlers. There are multiple examples of surfers who had a late start in the sport and not only managed to catch up to their peers but represent their countries at major surfing competitions.
To celebrate Olympic Day, we asked a handful of them about their secrets for gaining on the competition and why it is never too late to start a new sport.
Santa Vevere: The globe-trotting, cold-water warrior from the Baltics
Santa Vevere’s hometown Liepaja is not a destination often featured in surfing guides. The water temperature in the winter is close to zero degrees and even 6mm wetsuits are not always sufficient protection against the elements.
Factor in that there is only wind swell and no consistency to the waves, and it becomes clear why the Baltic is not an international surfing hotspot.
Despite these challenges, Vevere not only mastered the sport but also became the first Latvian surfer to compete at the ISA World Surfing Games, making the country’s debut appearance in 2023 in El Salvador.
She first tried surfing in her early 20s when her friend bought a shortboard and they both had a go on the waves. Looking back on those four days, Vevere admits they were not a success.
“We didn't want to take any lessons because we thought, ‘Ah, it's going to be easy, like snowboarding. You just buy a pro board and go like a pro, but no, everything was a bit different,” she recalled.
Vevere tried surfing again on a couple occasions over the following years, but always as short stints without any instruction. Instead, she channelled her competitive drive into kitesurfing and wakeboarding, becoming the Latvian wakeboarding champion several times.
Until one day, in 2016, she decided to put surfing centre stage.
“I just love surfing. It's always been for me, that if I like something, I just love it. And I know that I really want to improve, and I want to do it from all my heart, I jump in or I don't jump,” Vevere said. "That's why I think it's a big passion for me and I love what I do and I try to be better and better and better.”
Santa Vevere (centre) won the Latvian wakeboarding championships several times before switching her focus to surfing.
While her background in water sports helped Vevere get comfortable on the waves quickly, she knew she needed to take extra steps to become competitive.
Gone were the days of looking out for glassy, flat waters. Vevere was now on the hunt for the biggest waves she could find.
“In those last eight years, I try to really be out of Latvia to surf as much as possible, in the ocean,” Vevere, now 39, said. “In the Baltic Sea, you can keep yourself in paddling shape but it's hard to improve your surfing because the wave doesn't have any power. You catch something, but it’s a messy wave because it's usually wind swell. There's no proper ground swell so you are catching something messy.”
Vevere continues to train in the Baltic during summertime but is usually on the road from September to May. France, Spain and Portugal are her typical surf destinations, but she has also ventured out to South Africa and the Philippines.
She took lessons with a surfing coach for the first time ahead of the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games, and again ahead of the 2024 edition, but otherwise trains independently.
“Surfing is not my job,” said Vevere who runs a small wakeboarding park in Liepaja to support her sports ambitions. “I would love to have surfing as my job.”
Finland's Lukas McMahon first tried surfing when his friends were already competing in the sport.
Lukas McMahon: From football kicks to surfing flips
Like Vevere, Lukas McMahon represents a country not known for its surfing landscape. The waves in Finland – his mother’s native country – are as frigid and inconsistent as those on the Latvian shores of the Baltic Sea, so the sport remains the domain of a few die-hard, wetsuit-clad adventure seekers.
McMahon’s home surf in California is the complete opposite. Surf culture is flourishing on the rolling waves of Solana Beach, but while McMahon was born and raised there, he was not immediately convinced that surfing was the sport for him.
The Finnish national team surfer played football in his earlier years and only started surfing six years ago, when he was 12 years old. By that age, all his friends were already competing in the sport.
“My friend's dad actually was the first one to take me surfing, and I just got hooked on it instantly and I just wanted to do it every single day,” McMahon recalled. “The waves would be terrible, no one else would surf, and I would just be super happy.”
There was a lot of catching up to do once McMahon made the switch from football to surfing. Even his family had doubts he would be able to do it.
“I had to convince my mom to switch to surfing. I wasn't very good when I started. Everyone was miles above me,” McMahon said. “No one was believing in me. My mom was like, ‘Why? Why are you doing surfing? Just stick to soccer’. I think now she's believing in me a little more.”
Lukas McMahon has represented Finland at two ISA World Surfing Games.
That belief came when McMahon made the national team, first as a junior, and then making back-to-back appearances at the senior ISA World Surfing Games, in 2023 and 2024.
The secret to his quick success?
“Passion and dedication,” he said. “Every day learning, watching surf clips, studying, working out a lot.”
McMahon now surfs four hours a day, seven days a week, and works out at least once a day. He also watches video clips of professional surfers and, whenever possible, their live competitions.
Fellow World Surfing Games competitors, Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo, are among his biggest inspirations.
“It's just crazy to me that five years ago I started competing and now I'm competing with the pros,” McMahon said. “I learn just by watching how professional they all take it, their headspace. Especially when things are going wrong, they don't freak out. They just stay patient and wait for the wave to come.”
Erin Brooks: From novice to pro in three years
Canada’s Erin Brooks is also in awe of Gabriel Medina. The feeling is mutual as the three-time world champion known for his aerial technique sends the 16-year-old encouraging and instructive messages about her own aerial attempts.
Now described as a surfing prodigy, Brooks started surfing at a relatively late age of nine when her family moved from Texas to Hawaii. By 12, she went pro.
“I hadn't surfed at all in Texas and right when I first moved there, I took a surf lesson and from the first wave, I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Brooks said.
A background in artistic gymnastics meant that Brooks could keep a good balance on a surfboard from her first tries, while her experience of playing in small football tournaments gave her the competitive drive that she now brings to surfing heats.
Raw talent and skills picked up from other sports could only take her so far, however. The rest was down to pure effort.
“When I had first moved to Maui, I saw a local surf contest and there were so many kids who are already a lot better than me,” Brooks said. “I'm really competitive, so I wanted to be able to compete against them so I would wake up before school and go surfing or do a workout and try to surf at least four to six hours a day, no matter what the conditions are, and do some training on land as well.”
Such hard work is well worth it, she says, when it comes to the pursuit of your dreams.
“My first wave was super cool. 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,” Brooks said about what first drew her to surfing. “I was like, 'Wow, this is so cool, and people get to do it every day'. And that’s what I do now.”