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Walking on Water to the Beat of Her Own Drummer - Daize Shayne Surfs to Inspire
By Kathleen Gasperini
She's got what many others wish they had: Starlet eyes, a dimpled cheek, long legs, attached to a body that surfs. And very well. Daize Shayne won the Toes on the Nose Women's Longboard World Championships in Costa Rica in 1999 on a borrowed board. She went to the French Riviera last year and surfed on another borrowed board to a crowd that had never seen a woman stand on water. Basically, she makes people stare without even trying and is the ultimate of cool because she doesn't know she is.
When I ask her about winning her first World Champ Longboard title, she laughs and says, "The Costa Rica thing is a funny little story…" The contest was the revived Toes on the Nose Longboard World Championships that hadn't been in existence since the '60's. Obviously, it was long overdue. But Daize didn't know it. "I was a short-boarder, K? I didn't "longboard" then, but my boyfriend [Joel Tudor, longboard surf champion] flew me to Costa Rica with him for a contest he was in and suggested I enter this women's contest that was going on."
Not only did she not bring her short surfboard, but she had to borrow her boyfriend's longboard simply to enter. "I just didn't do contests then," continued Daize. "I tend to be competitive with myself only. But my boyfriend convinced me to enter, so I did." After the first heat, she was 32nd in the world. Then 16th, then 8th… "It kept going and when they announced the winners I thought maybe, if I was lucky, I'd be 4th. But everyone was looking at me weird. When they announced I had won, I burst out crying-like winning the prom or something. You can think about being a world champion, but you don't usually think it will come true, especially through something that's just pure fun."
Her mother thought the same thing. "I called her and told her I was the world champion longboard surfer and she started crying and apologizing for all the times she'd told me to get a real job and go back to college…"
A "foreigner" in her own country
Growing up in both Waimanalo in the mountains and Lanikai on the beach of, Oahu, Daize's surfing was regarded as something that kept her out of trouble. As a haole (white person) in a predominately native Hawaiian community, Daize and her long blonde hair and tall skinny frame made her a perfect target for harassment. She was constantly picked on in the water while trying to surf among a gaggle of guys. "I learned," says Daize "that you have to respect people and then they don't mess with you-you won't be the girl that gets sucker-punched. I would surf with these guys and continued to get pummeled by the water, and eventually, they thought it was kind of cool that I was improving."
Although Daize currently resides in Del Mar, California, she says she wants to return home some day to Lanikai and have her father build her a house. "It's a beautiful place, but you have to understand that there is some prejudice-that we took their land away. It's a different culture on Hawaii and many people don't understand that. We know that our economy thrives on tourism, but I bet 97 percent of tourists don't see the real country we live in. It is a completely different land and maybe it's better for us as residents that they don't come by because then we can avoid tourists who throw their cigarette butts out the window onto our beautiful country…"
Daize's days of soccer, dance, and gymnastics were numbered from the time her mom gave her a surfboard 15. She'd bolt out of school everyday and ride her bike home as fast as she could in order to catch the next set of waves. "I'd do my homework as quickly as possible and go out in the mornings at 5:30 for dawn patrol to go surfing. It wasn't a hobby-it became my life. I worked in a health food store and decided to become healthy for surfing and then my father gave me a guitar, which was all a part of my lifestyle," continued Daize. When Daize began to grace the pages of surf magazines, her family soon got the picture that surfing was also Daize's occupation. Roxy chose to sponsor her and Jet Models started signing her up for modeling gigs. Basically, she realized, she could make a living from her passion.
Wahines on Board
As a model and an athlete, Daize falls into a new category of female icon. Like pro beach volleyball player Gabriella Reece and basketball player Cheryl Swoops, Daize Shayne is adamant about being an athlete first, model second. "I wasn't into being a model [at first] because I wanted people to know what was inside of me," she explains. "People need to know what I can offer and I want to inspire others, especially other girls, that they can get out there and do the thing they love-whether it's surfing or music, or whatever. As long as I continue to model as an extension of my sport, then I'm fine with it. I'll admit, I'm a ham in front of the camera, but I want to be recognized, and this is important to me, as more than a model-I'm a surfer and a musician and have things to offer people."
In the sport of surfing, Daize is among the echelon of women pros who have helped moved the sport from its chauvinistic roots into a whole new world that includes watergirls or "wahines." Magazines such as Wahine, Surfer Girl, and of course W.i.g.-for Women in General-along with surf industry sponsors such as Quiksilver and Roxy have converged over the past 5 years to bring more women into the picture of this growing sport and lifestyle. "When I started surfing," recalls Daize, now 23, "there were no girls in the water other than Megan Abuba [another Hawaiian native]. Some would try, but then stop because they didn't like the way they looked. There wasn't anything or anyone there to encourage them to keep going. You're not going to get good quickly. But it feels good to look funny. Girls' self-esteem gets in the way of feeling funny about yourself and why is that? I've pearled over the top more than I'd like to admit and come up with my hair all over the place, sand in my wetsuit, but those are the best times of my life and it makes me laugh. I do wish I had a "Surf Diva" session during my early days. I would have taken every one they offered."
Many women pro surfers agree. Those at the top of their field such as Keala Kennelly (Daize's idol), Lisa Anderson, and big-wave surfer, Layne Beachely grew up as oddballs in a surf zone sprinkled with guys. Thanks to organizations such as Surf Diva, a women's surf clinic, and Las Olas, a women's weekly surf program, girls now have an environment where they can learn with other women and "look funny" as Daize says, without getting bulldogged by Moondoggies. Here you can laugh.
"Personally, I predict that over time there will be more women than men in surfing," Daize boldly states. "Women buy more clothes, they like to look cute, they like the water…. it may take time, but we will overcome the boys out there and have more competitions and be the bigger part of the entire surfing industry. That's something I'd like to see."
Other things she'd like to see have less to do with her own surf goals as much as inspiring others. "My only real goal now is to make women realize that they can do it, too. I want girls to be comfortable in making up dreams that they may never have thought possible. I want to make women's surfing a more recognizable sport. I feel so blessed and thankful with my own life that to inspire others is the most important thing I can do."
And she's doing it.
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