More than just a surfer

An incredibly well rounded and dedicated individual, Veronica is so much more than just a talented surfer. Her sun-bleached hair and tan skin still give her away as a globetrotting surfer, but there’s more to Veronica than just surfing; much more. She loves writing, reading classic literature, AC/DC, Metallica (the older stuff, of course), spending time with friends around the world, and she wants to learn to speak 6 languages. She has a wildly popular website where she answers around 30 fan questions a week, provides weekly journal entries, posts new photos from her trips and has a “where’s Veronica” link where you can find out were VK is calling home at any moment. Not too shabby for someone that spends around 11 months of the year away from home. Veronica’s mother remains her biggest cheerleader and support figure just as she was when Veronica was an amateur driving the teenage phenom up and down the California coast 3 weekends a month scraping to make ends meet. But Veronica never gave up trying to reach her dream and her mother was right beside her the entire time.
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Your mother seems to be such a huge motivator and inspiration in your life…

I always thought my mom was an angel. She’d always give people the benefit of the doubt and would give and give and give, to a fault, and if there was one thing that she showed me it was the beauty in every moment and to always be aware of that. I’ll always be grateful for that; she’s the ultimate mom. It’s so hard when you’re a kid because so often you get shut down, whether it be from your parents or your peers, but, sky’s the limit as far as I was concerned and that’s how I was treated and it was such a huge influence on me. She was there the 1st day I caught a wave and that was the best feeling I ever felt and I told her that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life and the next day we were at a surf shop and she was talking to people getting me information on surf organizations. She’s been 100% behind me.

Do you think the happiness and success you’re enjoying today is magnified because of what you’ve gone through and the fact that you stuck it out and really made it happen instead of just having it handed to you like some others out there?

Yeah. Depending on where you came from you gain an appreciation for certain things. I struggled as a kid, financially, and then all the sudden I went to the Roxy factory and I got a package of new socks and I was like, ‘look mom I’ve got socks! Free ones! The big pack, 12 of them!’ and that’s when I was like ‘things are starting to happen!’ Do I enjoy it [success and happiness] more than someone that grew up in Palos Verdes? I don’t know; I’ve never been that person. But I gained perspective and realized there’s value in achieving success and knowing what you can live without and that’s probably the biggest thing that I got, because no matter what I got it was like a bonus. My mother and I realized that security does not lie in the things you have; security lies in the things you can live without.

Do you have any siblings?

I have an older brother and an older sister. I was the youngest in the family. My parents divorced when I was 5 and I now I have a little brother and sister on my dad’s side; I get to be big sister to them, which is really cool.

You’re an avid snowboarder. Do you see a lot of similarities between snowboarding and surfing or are they apples and oranges?

There are a lot of similarities but as similar as it is, it’s as different as it is. Snowboarders and surfers are different people. I love the whole mountain culture; we have the same sort of personalities, in a way. As far as like the dynamics of movement, snowboarding in powder is like surfing but other than that it’s different.

Boarding House

The WB’s reality series Boarding House: North Shore was interesting to watch with exciting surfing in the water provided by a cast of supremely talented surfers that also made for captivating TV out of the water. Undeniably the aspect of the show producers exploited the most was the often tumultuous relationship between Veronica and Holly Beck. VK only saw the show once so she doesn’t know to what extent the drama was played out, but she knows how she handled it and how Holly chose to handle it. Veronica points out that she’ll take no credit for any of the drama between herself and Holly Beck; Holly brought it all on. But, that was Holly’s trip or how she chose to handle situations while VK simply got out of the house as much as possible. VK just wanted to do her own thing and let everyone else do theirs.

“I ran away from that house the majority of the time because I didn’t want to be around, even though I was incredibly honored and felt really privileged to be in that house with such amazing surfers. They had to make it TV, you know? They were everywhere they shouldn’t have been, but never there when they should have been.

I was like ‘let’s go to Lonnie’s, it’s pumping’ but they said they couldn’t get the cameras down there and wanted to shoot Pupukea when it was like 2-feet, so I was like ‘Fine. I’m gonna go surf there [Lonnie’s]’ This is our life [surfing] and that’s just not their life.”What did Veronica take away from Boarding House? “Never do reality TV.”