By Mike Chlala
Brodi Sale is a 20 year old surfer from the Big Island. Known to surf as sharp as it gets, you can regularly find him pulling into heavy barrels at Backdoor or traveling the world surfing and competing. On one beautiful North Shore afternoon overlooking clean 2 to 3 foot waves at the Sandbar, I arrived to interview Brodi as he was taking down some local fare from one of the local food trucks. Next to him cruising and checking the waves was Shion Crawford, and he would soon paddle out as we began our conversation. These guys are part of a larger crew that have known each other for a long time and often compete against one other. Far from bitter rivals, these two, along with many of their peers, choose to push themselves to improve as people and as surfers and have each other’s backs both in and out of the water. Far from bitter rivals these two, and many of their peers choose to push themselves to improve and have each other’s backs both in and out of the water.
Brodi and I sit and chat about some of his upbringing as a surfer, his influences, goals, friendship, and how to be grateful and stay present in the moment.
MC- When did you first get into surfing, when were you first stoked on it?
BS – I got into surfing when I was four years old just for the fun of it. I love the fun aspect. My dad’s a surfer. He’s from New Zealand originally.
I was born in California and then we moved to Hawai’i when I was two years old, then once I turned four he started pushing me into waves. We didn’t have any family or friends when we first moved to Hawai`i, but actually my dad had a friend from New Zealand who surfed a lot. Then my dad would push me into waves at the local kook spot and then I started to get better and progressed from there.
MC- Do you remember when you thought to pursue this as a life and career path?
BS- Yah. Honestly, I don’t really even remember. I remember being super serious about becoming a professional surfer since forever. I just remember starting contests and I did my first contest when I was seven and I think I won it. I did stand up bodyboard too, Full on. It was a bodyboard division and I just stood up and I think I won because I was standing up. Haha , I did both divisions in that one, and from there on I was always naturally super competitive and it just really sparked. I was super competitive from then on. I used to win a lot more contests when I was younger, I need to start doing that again.
MC- So besides your dad, who are some of the people who have influenced your growth?s a surfer?
BS – Shane Dorian for sure. I feel like everyone kind of knows that about me. Shane’s like a second father and he’s mentored me as long as I can remember. Actually the second contest I ever did was his contest, The Shane Dorian Keiki Classic. And I did that all the way until I was too old to do it. But yeah, Shane’s had a huge impact on my life and has just kind of helped me in all aspects of life, not just the surfing side, just trying to piece it all together. And he’s been right there, so he’s been a huge influence in my life. I’ve had a lot of really good people in my life who have helped me through a lot of things. But yeah, Shane’s right up there with my parents for helping me get to where I want to be and just all the stuff in between surfing.
MC – You have a solid group of friends and you guys all are surfing together and competing together. Even though you’re competing against each other, you still seem to have this amazing camaraderie. Tell us about that dynamic and what’s that like to be competing with your best friends?
BS – Yeah, it’s pretty special. To be honest, I explained that I was super competitive. I still am but I’ve learned to incorporate other things in my life. I feel gratitude and living in the moment and just trying to be the best person I can be is really important. At the start, I was so competitive, I just wanted to beat and be better than all my peers. And literally, it might sound a little bit weird, I don’t know if I should say it. But I always had a group of friends that I would be around and compete against, and I was so competitive with them. I just wanted to be so much better than them. I would literally go to California and would be hanging out with the San Clemente kids since we were young, and they were always the best next up and coming kids. And I wanted to be part of that and I wanted to feed off that energy and I wanted to be around guys that were better than me. But then they all just turned into being my best friends and helping me get through a lot of tough times. We’re all in the same boat. There’s a lot of struggles and a lot of ups and downs and just learning to ride that and they really just taught me just to have fun with life and just enjoy it all. So yeah, that first part is kind of funny. It doesn’t really sound right, but literally the first time I was going out and staying with them, my mindset was like, yes, I’m hanging out with the best kids. I’m getting better. I’m going to go back to Hawai’i and be better than all the Hawai’i kids. But yeah, it turned into something completely different. As you grow and get older, I’m sure it happens to everyone, your perspective on things that you thought you were doing change.I don’t know if that made sense.
MC – Made a lot of sense. A solid pack of good friends, putting out good energy and stoked for each other and that’s beautiful.
BS – Yah, I’ve had a lot of friends that I grew up with here in Maui, Oahu and Kauai, that I’m still really good friends with and surf with every day and compete with every day and have a good time just living the dream. And then I’ve had some friends that have gone on their own path and have done other things, gone to college or started a really cool job opportunity or even gone down the darker paths, but everyone just kind of chooses their own path. It’s really special and cool to just be grateful for all the friends that are trying to be successful and not go down that dark path.
MC- What keeps you just grounded throughout all the noise of professional surfing and all the different ways you see people going down their different roads?
BS- I wouldn’t really say I’m necessarily grounded. I definitely go through the ups and downs and feel like it just comes back to the love for surfing and just having fun and just trying to have a good balance of hanging out with friends, doing other things outside of surfing. I am also doing all the things that you think you need to do to get to where you want to be. So just staying consistent, journaling, training a lot, surfing a lot, just trying to stay balanced and know that everything’s happening for a reason and to be confident in my decision making and to keep learning. To be honest, the last two years I’ve had a pretty bad run of results and I feel like I keep trying new things and they don’t work out result wise. It’s just a constant battle of telling yourself that you’re doing all the right things and you need to bring this in and do this to try and see how that works and just keep testing new things to try and add to your slice of the pie. Just taking slices of everyone else’s pie and trying to put it into yours to have the perfect pie.
MC- What are some of your goals moving forward?
BS- My goals I’ve been writing down the last few days are to win Haleiwa, the next regional event, and qualify for the Challenger series before the end of the year. If I can win then I’ll pretty much be qualified for the Challenger series next year. Once I get on the Challenger, qualify for the CT, once I get on the CT I want to stay on tour for 10 plus years and give myself a shot to run for world titles. I feel like to win a world title, everyone says they want to, but as long as I can put myself in a position where I’m healthy enough and surfing good enough and everything lines up for it to possibly happen, and if I can make it happen, that’s a bonus,
MC- Anything you want to say to the readers out there?
BS – I think just staying positive and keeping a good frame of mind and just being grateful for all the little things, I feel like you’ll be better off. There’s no point in having a victim mindset of feeling like someone isn’t helping you to get to where you need to be or you’ve got the short end of the stick or whatever it is. I feel like you just have to persevere and work hard and try and achieve what you want to achieve. That’s all I’d tell someone that’s coming up surfing or in anything really.
MC – Sounds great. Thank you, Brodi.
Original Post from this site