00:00I just want to leave a legacy for people that look like me to say, hey, I can do this too.
00:12The ocean is not just for them, it's for all of us.
00:25It actually all started with a phone call.
00:28My dad was trying to phone a friend, dialed the wrong number, and my mom ended up picking
00:33up the call.
00:42They said when I was two days old, my mom took me to the ocean.
00:46My feet touched the vai, the kite, before they even touched land.
01:01Twenty-two years later, here I am, born on the north shore of Oahu.
01:13My dad really wanted me to play basketball, but all my friends were on the water, and
01:19that's where I wanted to be.
01:30I grew up in paradise, but it didn't always feel like that.
01:34It didn't always feel like it.
01:43And I found myself sometimes having to go off the grid to recenter myself.
01:56I wasn't as privileged as some of my peers.
02:00In order for me to show up at the same contests as my friends and even be able to pay the
02:04fees, I had to collect bottles at the beach and get my hands dirty for the shot.
02:16I remember being called things like Blackie Chan, Popolo, or even the N-word, and it was
02:23really confusing to me because some of the other kids calling me that were actually as
02:28dark as me.
02:38But because they weren't actually black, they made me feel like an outcast.
02:58It was hard being fully comfortable with who I was and myself.
03:16I felt alone.
03:31It's interesting, even though my grandmother is one of the last full native Hawaiians,
03:38which makes me a quarter Hawaiian, I'm still perceived to not be enough.
03:48My grandfather was a pastor at the church I went to, and we also live on the church
03:53grounds, so religion played a big part in my life.
04:02But it wasn't until I found Baten's Kaluhio Kaleni when the ocean became my church.
04:32Seeing my reflection on the water, I feel connected to my surroundings.
04:50My mind was more open, and I could process things more clearly.
04:54It was almost more meditative.
05:01It allowed me to reflect on my life and its happenings.
05:05The water sort of became my spiritual guide.
05:11While looking into that reflection, I began to see more for myself than what I was actually
05:17living.
05:35That's why I took the leap.
05:37Sometimes you gotta jump, and build your wings on the way down.
06:05Moving to L.A. led me to new struggles I wasn't expecting.
06:13A faster pace, changing and living arrangements, not having a car, having to ride the bus,
06:19taking the metro, riding the subway.
06:22It's all been a learning curve.
06:26But a voice kept telling me, the light would begin to shine.
06:37Despite the struggle, I've been able to find peace and community in the Ebony Beach Club,
06:43who strives every day to break the stereotype that surfing is just for white people.
06:57It also led me to meet a love I saw myself in, but never knew I needed.
07:13One thing I know for sure, however the way
07:43waves break, my ohana will always keep my head above them.
07:48And for the first time, I feel more pride in being myself, comfortable in my own skin,
07:54and also in my Hawaiian roots.
07:59Now I feel it, the light found me.
08:13Tolerance I never gauged, don't know if I'll ever act my age.
08:38Certain this is not a phase, certain I've been happy in my cage.
