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Erin grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Minnesota, hundreds of miles away from the nearest surf break. Although she was an avid swimmer doing open water swims in frigid lakes, the ocean was an entirely different beast when she and her family first moved to the west coast.

The move to Santa Cruz was a pandemic idea that took hold and didn’t let go – she and her husband worked in the world of academia: she as a clinical psychologist working with veterans who had PTSD and needed support in obtaining better sleep, and her husband as a librarian. The cold, midwestern winters were growing increasingly harsh as Covid plunged them deeper into solitude.

“We looked at a map for about a month and we knew we needed the ocean, mountains, good weather and redwoods,” Erin said. “We flew out here, signed a lease and flew back to Minnesota to put our house on the market. It was a very sudden, blow-up-your-life type of moment, and we’ve never been happier.”

Within the first year of living in Santa Cruz in 2022, Erin started surfing. Technically, her husband was the first to enter the water with a surfboard after Erin got him lessons for his birthday. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, she bought herself a foam board from Costco and went to the jetty at Capitola to try it out.

All first-time surfers have numerous hurdles to overcome – navigating currents, incessant white wash, nose dives, wobbly attempts to stand up and adjusting to the cold, northern California water, all while splashing about trying to paddle past the break.

Erin was tasked with learning all of those skills but was doing so with one leg, which she has never let stop her in pursuing new experiences.

She was born with a shorter right leg, a rare bone condition where the femur does not grow the full length and becomes increasingly hard to walk as you grow up. When she was two-years-old, Erin’s parents decided to get her leg amputated below the knee and get her fitted for a prosthetic, which she now takes off to swim and surf.

When asked whether that’s been a barrier to try new things in life, Erin shrugged and said it’s hardly something she thinks about.

“I grew up in the 80’s and back then you were thrown into the mix,” Erin said. “My parents didn’t worry much, they said ‘you’ll figure it out and you’re not going to be treated any differently’. So I figured it out and as a kid I was biking, running, swimming and doing all the things everyone else was doing.”

That attitude is the same perspective she carried into her first Women on Waves last year, when she competed in the 40’s age group and caught waves on one knee, which is how Erin adapts to surfing with one leg. Although she wasn’t scored because she wasn’t fully standing up on the waves, she said it was an incredible experience as a relatively new surfer.

“My first year was scary-fun because there were some huge waves with a ton of volume, and I don’t usually like to go out when it’s over three feet because of the logistics of surfing a bigger swell with one leg,” Erin said. “But being able to catch a few waves each heat was so fun, such a sense of triumph and everyone was so supportive in the water, cheering each other on.”

Surfing is now a main facet of Erin’s life. She surfs multiple times a week and claims the dawn patrol hours as her dedicated surf time, getting into the water before-or-as the sun is rising. When she’s able to get out in the water she said it sets the tone for her entire day, more so than anything else.

“If I get a good surf in there is a glow, a feeling of contentment and well-being that lasts for the rest of the day,” Erin said. “If I go a few days without it I start to feel irritable, and when I get back in the water it’s a great way for me to ground.”

As a youngster, Erin was drawn to the water. She said it felt easier to move through water than on land with her one leg, and in the water she was like everyone else.

Surfing, on the hand, is more of a challenge – Erin’s had to work with wetsuit designers to modify them to fit her body, waves over three-feet are difficult to navigate and not all breaks are easy for her to access, like Steamer Lane or certain places at The Point, which don’t always have the safest stairs and/or has rocky shores.

But she never lets that stop her and never complains, because she’s just stoked to have an opportunity to get out in the surf.

“Ishtar Carter from Blown Out Surf Shack worked with me and designed three wetsuits, to adapt it with a shorter leg on one side, they’ve been so great to me,” Erin said. “Because I am hopping to get to the water, since I leave my prosthetic at the beach and hop with my boards, I have to make sure the tide is going to let me get in and out at places, meaning places like Steamer Lane aren’t really an option. So choosing where to surf is more intentional, and that's been more difficult than the actual surfing.”

In the short time since Erin’s taken up surfing, she’s competed in a handful of events, including the U.S. Open of Paralympic Surfing in June 2023. All of her fellow competitors were riding shortboards, but Erin showed up with her favorite board – a 9’2” Ashley Lloyd – and surfed in her heat anyway. Her performance was good enough to land her a spot on the U.S. team, but she was told she’d need to learn how to ride shorter boards.

Erin took that feedback and has dedicated herself to learning how to ride all different sized boards, with her shortest now being a 5 '8". She’s preparing to compete at the International Surf Association World Para Surfing Championship in November in Huntington Beach.

“I have been able to learn how to drop down to a shorter board, but I am a longboarder at heart,” she said.

It’s from all of these experiences the last two years that led Erin to approaching WOW organizers to suggest a new heat be included in the event – one especially for differently abled surfers, or adaptive surfers.

For the first time in WOW’s history, the 2024 event will feature an “expression session” for surfers who catch and ride waves differently. Erin said everyone was really receptive to her idea, and that the organizers were seeking more ways to be inclusive of all types of surfers.

To Erin, this is a huge milestone. She hopes this will continue to broadcast surfing to all types of differently abled people, as she forges ahead in inspiring the next generation of adaptive surfers.

“Having this be the first time we showcase adaptive surfing at WOW is incredible,” Erin said. “Adaptive surfers is already a small community that gets smaller when you narrow it down to women, so getting to be out in the water with women with all of these different abilities and to see how they are ripping, it's going to be really special.”