We always like to have a “grom” on our team. If you don’t know what a “grom” is, click here! The youthful energy of someone who is seeing the world through excited eyes and is always super fired up about everything is just nice to be around. This is the first time we’ve had an Amiga return as staff and we’re really looking forward to having 20 year old Corinne help us out in June and July. To get to know a little bit about her, check out her story below:
As a young girl, I started swimming almost right when I could walk. I’ve had a weird obsession with water from then on, always going swimming constantly in my pool, or the lake where I spent a lot of my childhood visiting. To this day, I’m in a pool, Jacuzzi, or the ocean at least once a day. I was truly a water baby from day one. I started surfing at age 8 and fell in love with the surf camps and would stay after hours in the water. People would call me “smiley” because no matter what I was doing I wouldn’t stop smiling. I was a very happy kid. On top of that, I was very competitive at a young age and would constantly try to race kids in the ocean or the pool. I did junior lifeguards for years which was extremely competitive and I would surf for hours and get chili cheese fries or mexican food every day of the summer as a treat to myself for working hard. I have always had a passion to be good at everything and anything, so naturally I really wanted to get good at surfing because I loved the ocean so much. Since I was young I have always loved reading and getting to know new people. My greatest joy is found in helping people in any way I can. I spent almost every day in high school at the beach either before or after school. I got into surfing even more around my Sophmore year, at Bolsa Chica High, long boarding with my mom and my close friend. My friend helped me to work through my struggles, and was always pushing me. I loved long boarding and just recently started short boarding within the last three years.
I joined the surf team at Huntington Beach with my 3 best girl friends and in the mornings we woke up threw our surf stuff together, goofed around and cheered each other on to catch waves. It was great. After surfing, we ate donuts and big breakfasts at Sugar Shack and then would all nap at my house before school. We loved to go to “Old Mans” San Onofre and Trestles to shortboard. Our other favorite spot for the weekends, was Ventura’s C Street, Cardiff, and Blacks Beach. There probably wasn’t one day I didn’t show up to school with wet hair. We were living the life of “Blue Crush”. I always was a tomb-boy though so It’s always been more difficult to find girls to surf with and do fun stuff, so when I find them I am overjoyed.
In college I competed on the Long Beach Surf Team before I decided to study abroad in Italy to immerse myself in a completely different culture. Last year was the first time I went out of the country to El Salvador with Surf With Amigas and I loved everything the camp did and stood for. It’s the kind of mentality I want to always embody which is “no matter what it’s all good and were going to conquer our fears and have fun.” The idea of teaching other girls to surf and help them through the process I went through really excites me. That way girls like me can find other girls to surf with at home to live the grungy beach life style, as well as share the fun with others. There’s nothing that would make me more happy than to help people learn and believe in themselves.
