Joy Monahan
August 1, 2010—It’s not hard to find people in Hawaii who call themselves surfers. For many, it’s part of a healthy, active lifestyle that epitomizes island life. There are a select few who take it a step further, competing at the highest level, striving to be the best at what they do. Joy Monahan is one of the select—and not just for her surfing skills. The BYU student, wife, and world champion surfer is serious about her commitment to gospel teachings as well.
LatterDaySports: Where in Hawaii are you from?
Joy Monahan: I grew up in Aina Haina, right in-between Hawaii Kai and Diamond Head—the valley off the highway, the southeast side of the island.
LatterDaySports: How did you start surfing?
Monahan: My dad grew up surfing, so he taught my three sisters and I when we were young, probably around 8 or so.
LatterDaySports: What’s your favorite surf spot in Hawaii?
Monahan: It kind of depends where the waves are good. On the north shore, I like to surf V-Land, and on the south shore—I grew up surfing on the south shore—so I like surfing kind of right out by my house in the Aina Haina area.
LatterDaySports: Are you exclusively a long boarder or do you enjoy other ocean sports?
Monahan: I actually shortboard more than I longboard, when I’m not training to compete. Yeah, I love to do both. I guess I was just never interested in competing in shortboarding. I’m not that good. I just go out and have fun. I’ve done a little stand-up paddling—real beginner stuff. That’s about it.
LatterDaySports: Was it hard for you to leave Hawaii and the surf and go to BYU?
Monahan: Well, first, my parents have a rule that for your first year of college you have to go some place not in Hawaii. They thought it would kind of help us grow up a little bit, to be a little farther away. My sisters had both gone up there (to BYU), my two older sisters. I was dating. My husband and I, we dated in high school. We went to different high schools, but we grew up in the same stake. We were dating and he was going to go up there.
I was excited to go up there to BYU initially. Then, after that first year, I kind of missed home. I realized that I missed competing a lot. So my dad encouraged me to take the next fall semester off, and come back home and transfer to BYU–Hawaii. So I did that. I was at BYU–Hawaii for two years. Then my husband got back from his mission, and we got married, about 11 months after he got home and then went back up to school at BYU.
It’s funny because people always ask me if I miss it. I think I miss it, but I kind of have a little more to focus on, married life to focus on when I’m up here. So I think it’s easier being married living up in Utah than it was when I wasn’t (married). I’m always excited to get back home, but I don’t think I miss it as much as people probably assume.
LatterDaySports: I’m sure people wonder, how do you train to surf when you are up in Utah?
Monahan: For me, really, all I can do is go to the gym. I think at this level, a lot of the competing is more mental, than anything else. When I feel physically ready, that helps me feel mentally ready. So even though I can’t necessarily be in the water, as long as I stay physically fit, that helps me mentally prepare for surfing.
LatterDaySports: How old were you when you first started competing?
Monahan: I was 13. The summer before I started high school. I decided I wanted to start competing.
LatterDaySports: So is this how you trained for the Roxy Jam in 2008?
Monahan: Yeah. I was up here, going to school, trying to get my prereqs to get into the Accounting program. It’s really competitive. I realized that I would need to stay for Spring semester, which wouldn’t allow me to surf until two weeks before the contest started, because it finishes in June and the contest started early July.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to compete or not. I still had that goal of winning the world championships—that I had made when I was 13. But, I kind of had other priorities. I knew I wanted to finish school, and I wanted to get into the (Accounting) program, so I decided to stay.
Going to the gym was about all I could do. I trained 4 or 5 times a week, a lot of balance, core-strengthening stuff. I probably should have swum more. Swimming is really good cross-training for surfing.
After I finished spring semester, I went straight to California. I have a sister that lives in Orange Country, so I stayed with her for two weeks and surfed the beach breaks over there because they are a lot more similar to France than Hawaii’s reef breaks are. It’s just a beach break too. So I practiced over there, and then went to France and things kind of worked out.
Monahan is the 2008 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Longboard Champion.
Monahan celebrates after winning the final.
Monahan's knee turns were rewarded by the judges. Above photos: ASP Rowland © Covered Images
LatterDaySports: Yeah, you ended up winning that competition!
Monahan: (laughs) Yeah.
LatterDaySports: The next year you didn’t have as much success at the Roxy Jam, but how was your overall experience?
Monahan: It was a lot of fun going back. I didn’t realize the pressure that I would have felt. Going back, I felt good. I didn’t have to stay (in school) for spring so my husband and I were able to go to Hawaii for a couple of months before the contest started and I won a contest right before going up (to France) so I had some confidence. When I got up there, I still felt really good, but when I went out for that first heat, I kind of just crumbled. Mentally I wasn’t as prepared, trying to not let the pressure get to me. I caught a couple of decent waves but it was too late in the heat to kind of catch up to Summer (Romero) who caught two good waves in the beginning, so things didn’t work out, but I still had a lot of fun.
My sister in law and her husband came up, so it was the four of us and we went to Italy after and toured around for about a week. Overall it was a really fun trip. Just the surfing part didn’t go as planned, but it still was a really fun trip.
LatterDaySports: It sounds like you made up for it with all the travel.
Monahan: Yeah, I ate a lot of gelato and made up for it. (Laughter)
LatterDaySports: So does professional surfing fit anywhere in your future plans?
Monahan: Right now things are kind of up in the air. I didn’t qualify to surf in France this year (2010), because I was up at school and didn’t do enough qualifying events to get the points that I needed, so I won’t be going back this year. I never say never, but I’m kind of okay if I don’t go back up, but I think it would be fun if I did get a chance to compete again at that level.
I think I’ll continue to do some local events. My husband and I, we graduate this April and we’ll move back home to Hawaii and probably do some local events like uncle China’s—just some fun ones. Just have a lot of fun seeing my friends down there. I don’t really have any immediate plans for where I want things to go professionally. I’m just kind of going with the flow I guess.
LatterDaySports: You kind of already touched on this, but how do you qualify for the Roxy Jam?
Monahan: That’s an interesting question because it’s kind of been changing every year. Roxy and ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) teamed up together in 2006 to do the world championships and it’s kind of been an evolving process. I think they’re trying to get more organized each year so it changes slightly each year, but I think as of right now, they have different qualifying events in different regions. They take (the surfer’s) top four results and add those points up and the top two from each region qualify. They also take the top sixteen from the contest the previous year. That’s my understanding but it might be a little off.
LatterDaySports: Is the surf in France different than Hawaii?
Monahan: Yeah it’s more comparable to California. It’s a beach break. The tide also has huge effect on the waves. It’s maybe like a ten or twelve foot tide. Hawaii only has like a one, maybe two foot tide difference. The beach can be over a hundred yards long from the rocks to the shore and when high tide comes in, because the beach is so flat, it covers the whole sand. So the tide plays a huge part in the contest. They usually have to take a break twice a day, one at extreme high tide and one at extreme low tide because the waves are not as consistent and things usually slow down a little bit when it peaks. Yes, it’s a lot different than surfing in Hawaii.
LatterDaySports: Who are your sponsors?
Monahan: I’ve been fortunate to have some sponsors who support me—even though I’m up in Utah more than half the year—but yeah, my sponsors are Toes On The Nose, they’re my clothing sponsor. Honey Girl Swimsuits are my water wear. Guy Takayama. He shapes my boards. He’s from California, and DAKINE for accessories and Xcel for rash guards.
LatterDaySports: Do they also help with traveling expenses?
Monahan: Toes On The Nose gives me a travel budget that I use so it’s really helpful. The other companies support me with products. Every little bit helps.
LatterDaySports: I read in another interview that you feel strongly about dress standards and trying to be a positive example to others. Could you tell me about that?
Monahan: Yeah when my sisters and I surfed we always tried to wear a one piece and wear a rash guard. We just felt more comfortable that way. That was kind of our reputation, I guess, to be modest. All four of us were approached to be sponsored by Honey Girl. They didn’t really have a one piece that we felt comfortable wearing so we worked with the owner and she came up with a design that’s basically the only swimsuit we wear. It’s a one piece that’s comfortable and functional. We feel comfortable wearing it in the water. It was a really great thing that she did for us.
LatterDaySports: I would assume that you had no problems telling them, “No this is how we do it.”
Monahan: We kind of just told them our values and they were really supportive and it turned out to be a really great thing. We were fortunate to work with people who were respectful of our values and wanted to help us maintain them.
LatterDaySports: That’s awesome. Does your husband surf?
Monahan: Um, no he doesn’t surf. He knows how but he’d rather be golfing. He’s not much of a water guy.
LatterDaySports: What’s been your favorite calling?
Monahan: I’ve actually only have had one main calling. It’s being on the compassionate service committee. I really enjoy that calling, finding ways to give service through the Relief Society. I had a couple of other ones like choir pianist but I think the compassionate service (calling) is something I enjoy doing.
LatterDaySports: When you have spare time, what do you like to do in Utah?
Monahan: When the weather is nice I like to be outside and enjoy that. We’ve gone on a couple of hikes that have been fun. We like to snowboard during the winter. I don’t love it—not as much as surfing—but it’s kind of another outlet that let’s me release some of my energy. The mountains here are really gorgeous so it’s nice to get away. Other than that I just enjoy hanging out with our friends. I have a sister who’s up here and we watch movies and things like that, so nothing too exciting I guess.
LatterDaySports: Thank you and congratulations on graduating this April.
Monahan: Thank you very much.
UPDATE: Monahan has since graduated from BYU and did end up competing in the 2010 Roxy Jam ASP Women’s Longboard World Championship in July (pictured above), finishing equal third overall after being defeated by eventual champion Cori Schumacher in what was considered the best heat of the contest.
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