Hawaii, According To Nikki Van Dijk

It’s around this time of year that the North Shore can transform from a tropical dream into a testosterone-laced nightmare. Athletes fighting for their careers, photographers fighting for shots, tourists fighting for a place on the sand and locals fighting for uh, their locale? But for those capable of looking past the angst and pressure and enjoy the brighter sides of Hawaii, even if only the fringes, winter on the islands can be a real thrill.

23-year-old Nikki Van Dijk seems to have the right kind of headspace – though she has little to lose sleep over with her breezy top ten CT placing. Join her above for a free lesson on having a glass-half-full attitude, threading a crystal blue cave and hammering the kind of changes in direction that keeps her atop the competitive game in the latest episode of SurfStitch’s Ladies of the Sea series, which shines a light on women’s surfing outside the webcast and bikini shoots.