© Erik Petroni
Karina Petroni: Life's a Beach
Sep 29 2006 / Los Angeles, CA
Karina Petroni has spent most of her youth surfing the world and she’s not about to stop any time soon.
If you ever passed by Karina Petroni while walking on a beach somewhere,like say in Florida or some tropical beach in a far away land, you’d probably think she was a model. At a statuesque 5’11” it’s not a bad guess either. But ask her what she does and she’ll tell you she’s thought about modeling before, but she’s afraid that would cut into what she really does for a living—surfing.
The young Floridian has been surfing since she was a kid. Home schooled most of her life, the 18-year-old beauty grew up in the canal zone at the Isthmus of Panama, next to the Panama Canal, until she was in her teens. There she learned to surf and had a coatimundi as a pet. Don’t know that is? Think small ferret mixed with a squirrel. “I loved living in the Panama,” Karina says about her childhood. “I grew up fishing, surfing, shooting guns, basically doing whatever I wanted.” In 2000 when the United States gave away the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone, her family decided to move to America. They settled in Atlantic Beach, Florida, where Karina continued to pursue her career in professional surfing.
By the time she was in her early teens Karina had the eyes of the surf world on her. She was a gangly little girl who charged the waves comfortably and annihilated every other little girl she was put up against. So much so that she eventually started competing with the boys. The girls eventually caught up though, but she still has led the pack. Currently Karina is sitting in first place in America on the WQS and for the last year and a half was number one qualifier in the world on the circuit (the WQS is the qualifying circuit for the WCT, which is the top 14 in the world). Ask her if she is competitive and she’ll laugh. “Heck yes! I love to win. There are definitely two sides to me. I have a mellow personality, but when I get out there I know what I have to do.”
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Karina is competitive, but at the same time there’s no denying that she’s got what it takes to win, so it makes sense for her to have that competitive streak. She surfs nearly every day she can and she recently bought a time share in Indonesia, where she goes every few months to get some serious time in big waves, reefy. This helps her keep her edge even if she’s on the non-stop competition circuit, which for those who know surf comps, tend to be in sucky places with small waves and it never fails that the waves get worse on a competition day.
We could go on and on about Karina all day because she’s definitely an interesting surfer to watch, but instead of us doing all of the talking, we decided to turn the floor over to her and here’s what she had to say.
Lat34: Where do you live now and how do you like that?
KP: Atlantic Beach, FL. I am home about three months out of the year and the rest of the year and I am around the world surfing. I have been to six continents. It’s kind of rough sometimes because I miss my family. But I realize how lucky I am and how I am getting to see the world and I’m only 18. If I ever change my mind about surfing I have so many ideas now and surfing gave me those perspectives. You look at life a lot differently when you travel so much I think.
Lat34: How much time did you spend in a bathing suit growing up?
KP: I was in the ocean when I was six weeks old. I was always naked until I was like five but then after that at least 85 percent of my life was in a bathing suit.
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Lat34: Have you ever surfed anywhere that there were crocodiles?
KP: Yeah. In Panama. I haven’t seen one surfing but my brother has. He has told me crazy stories.
Lat34: Are you scared of them?
Lat34: Sharks?
KP: I have seen a lot of sharks. There was a contest that I can remember in August 2003 and there was 8 shark attacks in one day and they didn’t cancel the contest. They just moved it down the beach. Like sharks can’t swim? A girl got attacked and she went into shock. Later in the day I had a heat and all of the mothers were on the beach praying and freaking out and I am coming in from the heat and this guy is screaming at me from the beach and it sounds like, “don’t get off the beach.” You know how there are gulleys and I was coming in past the sand bar and these two fins are racing down the beach, like a 100 yards down the beach coming for me. I paddled so hard I was still paddling when I hit the sand. Right before they got to me they made a sharp left hand turn.
Lat34: Tell me about your worst wipe out ever?
KP: Nothing like scraping the rocks. Just held under and the leash wrapped under my body and thinking you are going to drown. That happens from time to time and you try not to remember it. When you are under the water it can feel like forever, even though I know I can hold my breath for like a minute under water. The panic is what gets you in that moment.
Lat34: Do you have to be tough to be a surfer girl?
KP: To some degree yes. You can’t be a wuss but I know some girls who are wusses and surf. It depends. There will be a girl who will charge a huge wave and then will be scared of picking up a bug.
Lat34: Are girl surfers competitive with each other?
KP: VERY. Girls are way worse than guys. Guys will go be best buds and then it’s war in the water and then they’re friends again out of the water like nothing happened. Girls freak out and take it to the beach. I grew up surfing against the boys so I learned from them a lot. I competed against them for three years. Now I get out there and I am cracking jokes and having a good time. When I am out there to win, I am going to win but I won’t take it to a crazy level but I know why I am there. When girls try to be all nice to me and say good luck I kind of roll my eyes. There was this one time in California where I said to a girl, ‘I hope you do really bad so I can win.’ I said it to her to freak her out. The girl couldn’t believe I said that. I beat her. It would have been funny if she had beat me though because I was being like that.
Lat34: Why did you surf against the guys?
KP: This girl once told me to surf against the boys. She said I would surf so much better. She was right and I started getting good and the funny thing is she started getting bitchy to me. In nationals one year she was splashing me and yanked my leash. She’s heavy in the water, but we’re all good now.
Lat34: Do surfer girls have groupies like surfer boys?
KP: No. Not even close. The girls go crazy over the boys. We have a few out there. But not as much at all.
Lat34: Gnarliest reef rash you’ve ever gotten?
KP: Nothing too bad but I go to Indo often and I expect to come back with some big old scrapes. I got really bad urchins in my foot in Puerto Rico and I had them in there for like 2 years.
Lat34: What’s the worst bathing suit mishap you’ve ever had?
KP: I have lost everything before. Then you are coming in covering yourself with a board and with seaweed. In Tahiti one time I went skinny dipping and lost my top and bottom. I don’t really have a problem with nudity. If you have seen one naked girl you have seen them all.
Lat34: Any good crazy stories from traveling in the tropics of weird bugs biting you, that kind of thing?
KP: I have so many crazy travel stories. I was in Nicaragua once and there were a lot of scorpions in my room. I’ll never forget that. Also when you travel with girlfriends, you run into the craziest and scariest moments. In Brazil we were hitchhiking once and got picked up by these guys in Speedos. Their Grandma was in the backseat with no teeth. That was sort of weird and creepy. Once I tried to steal a scooter. I have this big scar on my leg because I burned my leg on the pipe. The thing with traveling is that everything is always an adventure. It’s good times cruising around the world as a surfer girl.
Lat34: What makes being a surfer girl so cool?
KP: Surfer girls are strong, in shape, take care of their bodies, are outdoors, very spontaneous. We are crazy. Fearless. Why wouldn’t boys like us?
