Paige Hareb - The Olympics is one of my biggest dreams

How did you start surfing?

We’ve always lived by the beach so mum and dad would take me to the beach everyday so I pretty much had to surf. I started bodyboarding and then tried to stand up and just never looked back.

I was about 6 when I started properly and I remember summers at my local beach and I used to wear a little safety helmet and I just surfed everyday.

When did you realise you could do this professionally?

When I was about 15 or 16 I started doing a few of the New Zealand competitions and going to Aussie and doing pro juniors and I went well in those. Even though I was winning national comps it was still just fun, then I got my first sponsor at and that’s when I thought I could maybe make a career out of it.

My big breakthrough was when I got second in the world junior comp and straight after that I went onto the qualifying series for the World Tour and qualified when I was 17 for the World Championship Tour. I was pretty stoked with that, a lot of hard work went into it and a whole lot of years!

What do you think about surfing being in the Olympic Games?

Surfing’s come a long way of the last few years and I’m stoked it’s going to be at the Olympics. The women’s surfing has gotten way better and they’re improving loads all the time so it’s only getting bigger and better and it’s gonna be a tough competition. Everyone wants to go to the Olympics so it’s pretty cool.

What do you love about surfing?

Most of the time I do it for fun, I’m very competitive and I still enjoy travelling the world and now because I’ve been doing it for long it’s easier to keep going than to stop! I’ve got some good chances to qualify for Tokyo so I’m feeling pretty good.