Advertisement 1

The Surf Mercenary: Without homegrown talent, a SoCal kid who feels Canadian steps up to compete on world stage

Liv Stokes is a surf mercenary, a California-ringer, recruited by a more or less non-surfing nation to compete as a Canadian in Punta Rocas, Peru

Article content

Liv Stokes is a California state champion surfer, a 16-year-old with dazzling skills on a board in the big ocean and, she confesses, a competitive streak that drives her to win at everything — including school. The straight-A student has a perfect attendance record dating back to the sixth grade, an unblemished run of showing up that is about to end, and not because she is sick or has suddenly morphed into a surf rebel, but because Canada needs her.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

Stokes is a surf mercenary, a California-ringer, recruited by a more or less non-surfing nation to compete as a Canadian in Punta Rocas, Peru, at a Pan Am Games qualifying event beginning Dec. 5.

“My personal goal is to medal,” she says. “But my overall goal is to help my Canadian team reach the actual Pan Am Games in 2019. It kind of pains me now, to leave for a week and miss school, but it is definitely going to be worth it.”

Article content
Pictured is Liv Stokes, a SoCal kid (with a Canadian passport) who will be competing for Canada at a Pan-Am surf competition in Peru in early December.
Pictured is Liv Stokes, a SoCal kid (with a Canadian passport) who will be competing for Canada at a Pan-Am surf competition in Peru in early December. Photo by Surf mercenary/Liv Stokes

Dom Domic is Surf Canada’s executive director, and a recruiter of hired surf guns. He explains the perpetual dilemma of a Canadian in his position. Canada has the longest shoreline on the planet. Alas, our coasts lack in surf-able spots, while the communities nearby these spots tend to be tiny. People in Aliso Viejo, the city south of Los Angeles where Stokes resides with her parents and two sisters, can catch a morning wave before heading into the office or heading off to school. Surf diehards in Vancouver have to catch a ferry to Vancouver Island and drive three hours to Tofino or Ucluelet to enjoy the sport. So yes, says Domic, without apology, his approach to solving a lack-of-talent problem is to look abroad — to California, Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico and anywhere else he can find a high-level surfer with a Canadian passport and a desire to compete for a country that isn’t their home.

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

“If you have a valid Canadian passport, you’re eligible,” Domic says. “That residency thing — it is a great story, and we do have some homegrown athletes that live here and travel a lot — but we’re always looking for athletes who are going to produce results.”

Which brings us back to young Liv Stokes, a high school junior who, on a recent November morning awoke at 5:30 a.m., had a bowl of Special K, a mug of Earl Grey tea (with milk), climbed into her mother Dominique’s silver Subaru and climbed out again at San Onofre beach. She then put on a wetsuit and paddled into a California sunrise on a nine-foot-long yellow surfboard.

“Before surfing I did all these other sports, like soccer and dance, but surfing was so different from anything else,” Stokes says. “The stress of everyday life isn’t out there on the water. Sometimes I’ll even see a dolphin.”

Stokes father, Chris, grew up in Toronto. He still “bleeds blue,” as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and stole away from the California sun on a recent Sunday afternoon to catch a snowy Grey Cup game on television.

Pictured is Liv Stokes, a SoCal kid (with a Canadian passport) who will be competing for Canada at a Pan-Am surf competition in Peru in early December.
Pictured is Liv Stokes, a SoCal kid (with a Canadian passport) who will be competing for Canada at a Pan-Am surf competition in Peru in early December. Photo by Jeffrey Fortuna, Surf mercenary/Liv Stokes

“I cheered on the Argos,” he says. “We’re card-carrying Canadians.”

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Dominique, the surf mom — she likens it to being a hockey mom, only with the beach instead of the rink as the destination — was born in California, but has deep family roots in Quebec. Collectively, the SoCal Stokes’ have a cottage north of Toronto, which they visit every summer. The lynchpin, perhaps, is Liv’s grandfather, John. He passed away last January, but had lived vicariously through his granddaughter’s surfing; sending her Canadian surf-themed articles, urging her to investigate the national team.

So, at age 13, that is exactly what she did, emailing Domic, just to say hello, submitting a surf resume and assuring him if he ever needed a surf mercenary, well, she would be “stoked” to compete for Canada. (Being somewhat skeptical of the tidiness of this cross-border arrangement, I subjected Stokes to a pop Canadian quiz when we spoke by phone. I can report that she correctly named the Canadian capital, the prime minister, the hockey trophy awarded to the NHL champion, the two official languages and, without hesitation, sang the opening verse of O Canada.) She also keeps a Canadian flag in the pencil cup on her dresser and recently inherited, by force of persuasion, her father’s 40-year-old Maple Leafs sweater.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content
Liv Stokes meets a Mountie at a Canada 150 event.
Liv Stokes meets a Mountie at a Canada 150 event. Photo by Surf mercenary/Liv Stokes

But for all her Canadian credibility, a niggling question persists: why didn’t Stokes, California state champ, want to surf for the American team? The teenager pauses to consider this, before offering a delightfully patriotic response.

“I’ve always felt more Canadian than American,” she says. “I wanted to join the Canadian team because I have family ties in Canada, and it was also partly my grandpa’s coaxing — he was so proud to be Canadian — and I knew he would love it if I did.

“Plus, Canadians are always so nice. And I like that, too.”

• Email: joconnor@nationalpost.com | Twitter:

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

This Week in Flyers