Kelia Moniz

Born and raised on Oahu, Kelia Moniz is a two-time world longboarding champion, freesurfer, wife, mother, and entrepreneur. From a deeply rooted surfing family, Moniz rode her first waves around the time she learned to walk. She started competing at age 15, racked up a string of victories, and turned pro shortly thereafter. She is the 2012 and 2013 world longboarding champion. She spent much of the 2010s as a traveling freesurfer. In 2015, on a trip in Tahiti, she rode serious Teahupo’o on a longboard. Now 31 and a mother of two, Moniz and her husband, photographer Joe Termini, recently opened the Honolulu Pawn Shop, which sells clothing and Joe’s work.

In this episode of Soundings, Moniz talks to Jamie Brisick about competing, longboarding, her Town roots, living out her dreams, her most memorable trips, overcoming self-doubt, Rell Sunn’s legacy, starting her own business, and surfing as a universal language.