Dartmouth woman making waves in the surfing world

Claire Parsons has spent over a decade catching waves on her board. Surfing has helped her through some hard times.

She took her first lesson with East Coast Surf School at Lawrencetown Beach, N.S. Recently, she placed third at a longboard surfing qualifier in Tofino, B.C. 

Now, she's headed to El Salvador in May to represent Canada at the ISA World Longboard Championship.

Parsons said she had some struggles about five years ago and surfing allowed her to let go and deal with life's challenges.

"It has this power to really help you with your mental health," she said. "It makes you kind of just disconnect from what's going on, and you're able to kind of just focus on catching a wave."

In 2006, Cape Bretoner Michelle Richards represented Canada in the same competition.

Things were a lot different in the surfing world back then.

Richards said there was no women's longboard surfing category when she competed. She had to surf in men's categories, both to qualify for Team Canada and in the world championships.

Her experiences, along with a conference she attended on inclusive sport, led her to create the Nova Scotia Female Surf Mentorship program around 15 years ago.

"This created a safe space for women to communicate and mentor each other in surfing in Nova Scotia," she said.

Since then, she's also helped create surfing programs for Black and Indigenous people in the province.

Richards and Parsons have worked together, sharing their love of surfing through these programs. Parsons has seen for herself how surfing is becoming more inclusive.

"An Asian Canadian surfer, it is sometimes hard for me to … connect with and see a reflection of myself in surfing as well, but times definitely are changing," said Parsons.

Heading into the world championships, Parsons has the support of the Nova Scotia surfing community behind her.

"Claire, you've done an amazing job and keep it up," Richards said. "Your training has been an inspiration to everybody."

Surf Canada director Dom Domic said in an email that the organization is "very stoked" that Parsons is heading to the championships.

Parsons said she's looking forward to the competition. "I'm really excited to showcase what I'm able to do on a surfboard."