Introduction

Big Wave World Champion and former Championship Tour surfer Keala Kennelly talks about her successful career as a surfing pioneer. She dives deep into equality in women’s surfing, touching on the importance of women’s events at waves of consequence like Pipeline and Teahupo’o, her excitement about the women’s CT returning to those places yearly, fighting for and eventually winning equal pay, and how female surfers always rise to the occasion when given the opportunity. She dissects her own origin story and career on tour, from growing up in a surfing family on Kauai and competing with the Irons brothers, to making it onto the tour, always performing better at big waves than smaller beach breaks, and her eventual decision to leave the CT for free surfing. Keala also shares stories about her evolution into a Big Wave champion, her first time surfing Teahupo’o, working in Hollywood on “Blue Crush” and “John In Cincinnati,” her career as a DJ, and how the WSL has begun to embrace LGBT surfers like Tyler Wright.

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