“Growing up on the mainland, it wasn’t that cool or great to be the ‘dark kid,’ but here the darker the better!” Nique couldn’t resist the magnetic pull back to the ocean. The birthplace of surfing culture swept her up with its bare-footed, easy-going island time and rich cultural diversity. She got on her first surfboard in Waikīkī when she was 18 and learned by eyeing the best surfers in the line-up and mimicking their style, positioning, and maneuvers.
Today, Nique has a style all her own. The goofy-footer is only 5’2″ tall, but her graceful longboarding approach creates a queenly perch. She hangs ten with nimble shifts of weight, both powerful and statuesque, and her ability far exceeds the relatively few years she has called herself a surfer. Nique entered her first surf contest with just a couple of years experience under her belt—and placed in multiple disciplines.
She favors her two 9’0″ high-performance nose riders and a heavier 9’2″ log for the rolling rights of Pops, Threes, and Kaisers—her favorite waves in Waikiki. She’s been especially successful competitively on her 6’10” high-performance stand-up paddleboard, on which she finished fifth in the world in 2018.