I gasped as I came up on the other side, blinking rapidly to clear the saltwater from my eyes. My older brother Evan was up ahead, and I paddled hard to reach him and his friends. It had been like this for years; I tagged along with all of Evan's friends to surf, and after I did it enough times they realized that there was no getting rid of me. Eventually I had become a member of the group, and there weren't enough people on the island for them to think about ditching me.

    Evan was up and driving down the line of his first wave of  the day, and I narrowly managed to avoid him as I paddled up the wave. I had gotten in his way enough times to know that the after-effects were not pretty.

    "Finally made it out, Riv?" Noah turned around on his board as I reached the lineup, his mouth turning up in a grin. He had been Evan's best friend since they could sit on a board together while our dads pushed them through the whitewater. His younger brother, Will, lifted up a hand as a greeting.

    "Well maybe if I had more than a thirty second warning I wouldn't have taken so long. We can't all live in boardshorts."

    Noah laughed before turning around to catch the next wave. I eyed set, noting the third wave out and my relative position. Will took off on the second one wave of the set, and I was free to cruise on into the last one. A few quick paddles was all it took before the wave swelled underneath me, and my feet swung under me to plant themselves on the board. The wave wasn't monstrous, maybe six feet or so, but I managed to get a nice bottom turn in before eyeing the lip. I rode straight up to it, my hair slapping behind me as I whipped my hips around. Unfortunately, it was at this time that I realized that my back foot was slipping, and right when I tried to snap off the top my foot came off the board completely, landing me in the water behind the wave.

    A series of whoops reached me as I surfaced, and I attempted to send daggers at the boys. However, I couldn't compose myself for long and was soon laughing at my amature mistake.

    "That was sick, man, I've never seen anyone send more spray off the lip in my life. Wiping out might be the new way to go," Evan laughed at me, slapping at the water as he doubled over.

    "Don't get too cocky, Ev. Remember that your little sister out-surfed all of you last weekend at the mock competition," I winked at him as he shook his head.

    "Speaking of comps, when is your next one?" Will spoke up once we had all quieted down. He was a year older than me, putting him in the same grade as Evan. Will and Noah were brothers, and Evan split the difference between them in age. The three of them did almost everything together, but they were nice enough to include me most of the time.

    "I'm flying to Maui this weekend. Should be a pretty decent one, it's a QS 10,00 so there's the opportunity to pick up a few points," I shrugged, squinting out at the waves ahead.

    "You're pretty close to top ten, yeah?" Will wiped his soaked hair back onto his forehead in a hopeless attempt to get it from falling back into his eyes.

    "Yeah, I'm thirteenth now. Just need a good result and then we'll see, but it will be tough competition. I know there's going to be a good group of girls from the championship tour there."

    Evan paddled up to me, giving me a hard slap on the back. "Just keep charging kid, you've been surfing great recently. No big deal."

    I nodded, eyeing a wave that was shaping up and moving to catch it. It was easy for him to say that it wasn't a big deal, but it was. I was closer than I had ever gotten to qualifying to the Championship Tour, but a lot of things still had to go right if I was ever going to make it. I needed a top three result on the Qualifying Series, which meant a lot of heat wins this weekend. Possible, but rather unlikely.

    The wave began to swell and I made a few hard strokes before leaping up onto the board, cutting through the glassy surface of the wave. A few turns came naturally before I started to eye the lip again, evaluating how the wave was shaping up. In a second it became perfect, and a moment later I was flying through the air. My shoulders flew around, my feet following as I twisted through the air, completing the air reverse. Then the spray of the wave was back in my face, and I was forced to twist back around and face the beach before exiting the wave.

    Evan was clapping for me back in the lineup, and I got some cheers from the other boys. I couldn't resist sticking my tongue out at him-- after all the flack that he had given me earlier he deserved it.

    The next few hours cruised by, and we participated in our favorite pastime of giving everyone scores on their waves. This mostly consisted of the victim getting absolutely demolished for every fractional mistake that was made, but the grief was all given out evenly, so no one could complain. At one point I realized that we had been out here for awhile, and that probably wasn't the best thing for my schedule.

    "I just realized that I should probably get going," I sighed as I faced the boys, "the biology labs don't seem to do themselves."

    "You have online biology labs?" Noah asked incredulously.

    "Can't have a life after surfing if you never get a real education. At least that's what my mom says when she makes me sign up for advanced classes."

    "Pshh, kid you've got a shot at being famous enough that you'll never need an education. If this whole surfing thing doesn't work out, just tell Ripcurl that they can stick you in the modeling lineup. Scratch that, if you can't surf you should get a job and give Ripcurl my number. I'm sure that they'd love to have this body on their Instagram," Noah flexed his tanned arms that were pretty toned, and I laughed at that.

    "I'll see you later, pretty boy. And the rest of you," I pointed at Will and Evan, "make sure that he doesn't drown while looking at his own reflection.

△▽△

    The screen in front of me was open to a tab displaying the surf forecast for Maui. It appeared to be decent, potentially five to six feet, but a lot could change in a few days. Every time that I had surfed there we would have one great day, and the next would be half the size and crumbly. I rubbed my right eye which had started twitching yesterday, a sure sign that I was getting nervous even if I couldn't feel it yet. A rush of air left my mouth, and I switched to another tab that was displaying film from the previous year's competition. The break seemed to be fairly consistent, so I wasn't terribly worried about that. It was mostly just the rest of the competition.

    I backed away from my desk, gazing out my window to the ocean. It was a beautiful day, and the blue waves shone brightly in the mid-afternoon sun. My replay of this morning's waves were interrupted as a knock sounded at my door. A Hawaiian girl poked her head in and grinned when she spotted me. "Riv! You ready to go?"

    I nodded happily and put on my slippers, grabbing my wallet as we headed out. I nudged her, joking, "How could I ever forget about our pre-comp tradition?"

    We hopped in her old pickup truck and made the short drive to our favorite shaved ice shop. Alani ordered her classic strawberry, and I grabbed a mango for myself. Our usual bench was open outside, and we sat and enjoyed our snack. Alani had become one of my closest friends after I started surfing and switched to online school. We were both sponsored by Ripcurl, and living on the same island made training together a natural process. The friendship easily followed, and she was my closest friend in the world of competitive surfing.

    The conversation quickly got onto Alani's boyfriend, who she had been dating for almost a year. They were adorable together, but I didn't know him that well because I attempted to avoid the awkwardness of third wheeling.

    "So, I have great news!" She grinned at me, clearly unable to contain her excitement.

    I laughed at her before attempting a shot in the dark, "Daniel is coming to Maui to watch?"

    Her mouth dropped open. "How did you know? Did he tell you?" She looked almost betrayed by this possibility, and I had to shut it down quickly before she started texting him and never returned.

    "Of course not, I just figured that it had to do with this weekend and that you probably wouldn't get that excited if it was just your parents coming."

    "Oh yeah, well you're right. I just can't believe that he's flying to see me surf, even if it's just to a different island. I'm so excited!" She let out a happy sigh, gazing out at the mountains around us.

    "I'm happy about it as long as I still remember that I have a friend with me too," I winked at her, knowing that she would never dream of ditching me.

    "Mhmm, of course not. I just hope that you don't get too jealous of Daniel when you don't get me all to yourself."

    I gave her a shove at that remark, and we spent the next few minutes enjoying our time in the sun. Soon enough the time came for us to head home, as I had to eat dinner and pack up my boards and she had to pack literally everything that she left for the last minute, as usual.

    The rest of the evening passed quickly, and before I knew it I was lying in my bed, gazing up into the pitch black. The competition was looming over me, and the thoughts of everything that was riding on a few days of surfing shot around my head. As much as I didn't want to freak myself out, it was a big deal. A good result meant that I had made it to the big leagues and had a shot at making a career out of this. The alternative left much to be desired. Another year grinding it out on the qualifying series, hoping for a chance that might never come.

    If this didn't work out, I would have to face the reality that I might have to pursue other options. Even with a sponsor, it was still expensive to travel the world and surf for dreadfully small amounts of prize money. College would be back on the table if I didn't make the cut within the next few years, and even though I was smart enough it would mean letting go of a big dream.

    I tossed onto my side, wiping my hair out of my face and forcing my eyes shut. Sleep came eventually, and everything else would follow.

△▽△

    The blue jersey stretched as I tugged it over my ponytail and bikini. My coach, a weathered guy who grew up surfing big waves all around Hawaii, gave me a pat on the back as he handed me my board. His tan skin wrinkled as his face broke into a smile, and I couldn't help but return it even as I was practically twitching with nerves.

    "Go get 'em kid."

    The waves glistened as I ran towards them, entering the water just as the announcer began to call the end of the previous heat. I thought back on my brother's words of encouragement over the phone this morning, as they were remarkably similar to Coach John's seconds ago. I mentally reminded myself of the visualization that I had done this morning before heading out, and by the time that I had envisioned every cut and curl of the waves I had reached the lineup. Three other women were in my heat, all of them members of the Qualifying series. One, Samantha Rhodes, was ranked a few spots above me at ten. The others were clearly competition as they had made it to the round of 32 which was no small achievement, but Samantha was the best.

    The buzzer signalling the start of the heat blared off on the shore, but the only sound between the four of us was the waves crashing. Samantha set off on the first wave, and I forced myself to focus on the horizon rather than her wave. A few minutes later she was back in the lineup as the call from shore declared that she earned a 6.40, which was a fairly strong start.

    The girl in white jersey pushed me into the waiting line as she took her priority on the next wave, but I drove hard into the third wave of the set. I worked my way into the pocket of the wave by performing a cutback turn and let myself build up speed for a moment. Suddenly, the wave appeared to be closing out in front of me. Inspecting the lip I noticed that it was closing out, but only right ahead of me. The board followed my will and rode up the wave, floating over the crashing whitewater and back onto the firm face of the wave on the opposite side. One more turn fit into the wave before it closed out, but I was pleased with the execution of the floater.

    A few tense minutes later, the score was finally called out. "Six point seven to the surfer in blue," called the announcer.

    I smiled, pleased that I had managed to sneak out with a lead. My coach had informed me many times that it was important to get out front quick, both to intimidate the others and to allow yourself to relax. The next twenty minutes went by fairly quickly, with the other girls catching waves but not getting anything spectacular. It wasn't big enough to get tubed, so most of the scores were coming from turns and airs. Rather, they could have come from airs but no one had been able to land one yet, myself included. A 4.5 had put me over a ten, but Samantha was still close behind. She had priority now too, so with the minutes running out I was basically at her mercy.

    A bump was appearing a ways out, and it looked like it might be the best wave of the day. I paddled into what seemed like it would be a reasonable position, but Rhodes seemed to have the same idea. She cut through the water ahead quickly, muscles flexing as she pushed water behind her. The wave was clearly the best one of the day, clean and probably six feet tall, though it was hard to tell with no one on it. My board inched forward as I paddled feebly, but a second later she was up and riding, blonde hair flying behind her.

    An audible groan left my mouth as I watched her glide towards the shore. Half of me was tempted to paddle in now, but just as I glanced to make sure that there was nothing worth surfing left, I saw it. It crested higher than the first wave of the set, and I frantically worked to turn my board towards shore. Just as the nose of the board hit the proper angle the wave swelled beneath me, and I was off and riding. I was about to attempt a turn before realizing that this was the perfect wave. A quick stall allowed me to stay in the pocket, and I crouched as low as I could, watching the wave make a perfect arc over me. The green ceiling was not the smoothest or larger barrel that I had ever exited, but as soon as I did I knew that any barrel was enough at this point.

    Cheers erupted from the crowd on the beach, and I stood tall and grinning before the wave gave out, forcing me into the roaring whitewater.

    "Congrats, kid, you surfed great," John spoke as I made my way through the excited crowd back up to the tents. "You know what that result means?"

    I looked up at him, knowing that nothing big had happened yet. "Uh, why don't you spell it out for me."

    "One more heat win and you're on the tour," He winked, enjoying my shock, "This is what we've worked for."

    I shook my head, unable to believe that it was all coming down to this. One more heat.

Hope that you enjoyed reading this first chapter :) I'm pretty excited about getting this going, and would love to see votes or comments if you liked it!