Kolohe Andino.Photo: Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty
“I’m stoked,” Andino told PEOPLE in an earlier interview. (“Super stoked,” he added.)
This all makes more sense when you learn his dad, Dino, was a championship surfer, too, and Andino’s childhood included a fair share of travel with him.
“I can’t get away from the ocean for too long,” he said.
Kolohe Andino.
“I just love surfing,” Andino said. “I think there’s so many things that you can’t control, and you never really get one wave that’s the same so you never really get jaded and bored. I just wake up and surf every day.”
In Japan, he and the other Olympians — including fellow Americans John John Florence, Caroline Marks and Carissa Moore — will be surfing at Ichinomiya beach.
“I think the waves on offer in Japan will be pretty fun,” Andino said. “It’ll be a lot of aerial maneuvers, so it should be pretty exciting to watch.”
The judges will be watching from shoreto measure thingslike the difficulty of what each surfer attempts and what they pull off (aerials, as Andino said, and also slides and turns) plus their power, speed and flow.
He’s traveled to Japan a few times already and is a fan: “It’s a great place, and I really like the culture there. It’s rad.”
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Kolohe Andino.Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty
For support, Dino remains a constant presence. “I just basically run everything through the filter of my dad, so we talk a lot and hang out a lot. We’re good friends,” Andino said.
And, of course, he has his wife of three years, Madison, whom he first met more than a decade ago after crossing paths at a favorite local restaurant.
One day, perhaps far off into the future, Andino won’t be surfing competitively anymore — but he’ll still be surfing. He seems himself changing, but he doesn’t envision ever stopping.
“I’ve matured a lot. The world tour will do that to you,” he said. “I qualified when I was 17, and I was just immature.”
Now, “I’m just trying to be who I truly wanted to be and who I thought I was, and that kind of helped my surfing a lot and my competing.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics beginning July 23rd and the Tokyo Paralympics beginning August 24th on NBC.
source: people.com
