KAREN GALLAGHER
PRESIDENT/ HEAD SURF INSTRUCTOR/COOK/DRIVER/WEB-BUILDER

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, MOM TO KALEA

2nd MOST IMPORTANTLY, SURFER

Hi, here's something about me. I feel it's important that parents know a bit
about the person that is going to be responsible for their children
for 5 full days.Also, if you're going to be taking surf lessons from someone,
you might want to know about their surfing background.

I'm 44 years old and have been living on the North Shore since 1979.
I was born into a family of surfers. My mom, Gretchen, grew up surfing in San Francisco
and spent the 1950s surfing the coasts of California and Hawaii.
Her brothers Fred, Peter and Gene Van Dyke were some of the
pioneers in surfing and big wave riding.
My lifelong passion for surfing began at San Onofre in the 1960's. Then my
family moved north to Santa Cruz in 1971. My brothers and I hooked up with our cousins,
surfing Pleasure Point and isolated breaks around the Monterey Peninsula.
I surfed in amateur contests up and down the coast for years, and won several.

With first trophies from San Onofre; going out in a heat in Santa Cruz, 1978
Tired of cold, foggy mornings and full wetsuits, I moved to the North Shore of O'ahu
in the spring of 1979 after a trip to Australia, and have been here ever since.
After 2 years of odd jobs, I became owner of the Sunset Beach Surf Shop. Located
next to Kammies Market, Aricia's Beach Inn Kitchen and the only laundromat
around, I found myself in what was then the heart of the North Shore.

1987 at Sunset Beach Surf Shop with uncles Fred and Gener Van Dyke
In my 14 years running the shop, I had a surf team that was comprised of almost
every kid that grew up surfing on the North Shore during that period.
I handed out dozens of t-shirts, stickers, and cases of wax. I spent thousands of
dollars paying for contest entries and surfboards.
On weekends I'd load up my Mazda and take the team to surf contests all over the island.
Some of those kids have become famous surfers.
Kalani Robb, Tamayo Perry, Shawn Briley, Pancho Sullivan,
Rainos Hayes, James Labrador and Benji Weatherley, to name a few.
Others, like Jack Johnson and Chris Taloa, have made names for themselves as
musicians and actors. Many others like the Wilson, Vieira and Amatore brothers,
Orion Taylor, and Brian Akina, have settled into regular lives here.
I am very proud of all of them.

Hanging with Jack Johnson in 2002; Kalani Robb mid '80s
During the late 1980's and early 1990's, I had some success
competing in professional surf contests at Sunset Beach.
For 5 years in a row I made the semi-finals, reaching
the finals once, during the inaugural XCEL Pro.

SEMI-FINALIST SUNSET BEACH 1980's
My daughter, Patricia Kalea Pacote, was born in the fall of 1992.
In 1995 my shop was vandalized and robbed.
I once again struggled doing odd jobs, including surf instructor at Richard
Schmidt's surf camp in Santa Cruz, California and working for Country Surfboards in La'ie. In the summer
of 2001 I finally followed through with my dream of my own surf camp.
Borrowing my friends' kids, tents, coolers and vans, I ran 2 weeks
of camps. Great waves and great times, even when a passing hurricane
thoroughly drenched us during the 2nd week.
So, now I'm a veteran of 6 years of summer camps. I offer surf lessons the rest of the year,
combined with some other jobs to keep the rent paid. I worked for 6 years as a
videographer for Board Stories, a surfing television show.
It is fun and challenging to try and capture the incredible rides of
the best surfers riding the biggest, most exciting waves in the world.
For the past couple of years I've also been trying my hand writing for freesurf magazine,
and have found that it is something that I really enjoy.
In fall of 2006 I got inspired and started a new magazine for the North Shore called Paumalu Press.
It is a community/environmental magazine that has been received tremendously in my community.
My other interests include traveling, tennis, yoga and river rafting.
Now, it's my own daughter and her friends that I'm loading up to take surfing!

FRIDAY AFTERNOON AWARD CEREMONY