Wipeout after wipeout after wipeout at 38.

👋 Hey I’m Tiffany!

I think a lot about how to make sure the work I do is sustainable.

My work has five pillars: social health and community, education, economic empowerment, civic engagement and, finally, joy.

Surfing goes into the joy pillar. So does climbing.

They are the things that are just for me. Just for Tiffany. They are the things that allow me to exist without advocating all the time.

Climbing reconnects me with my younger self. There is something about being in the ocean and connecting with nature, the vastness of the world we live in and how we are all just a small little glimmer.

I also recently invested in a really cute wetsuit that brings me joy every single time I put it on. That counts, too.

Little nudges from the universe

My surfing journey has been full of what I call little nudges from the universe.

I originally connected with Sea Together after entering one of its giveaways. At the beginning of my journey, I also met someone on the USA Para Surfing Team. She told me about the different adaptive surfing clinics available and encouraged me to sign up.

I started looking for other surfers with an injury like mine, too.

I have a brachial plexus injury and a paralyzed arm. A couple of years ago, I found some very specific Facebook groups for people with the same injury. I searched those groups for surfing and discovered a few people who were already doing it.

I messaged them and asked: Do you use any adaptations on your board? How do you paddle?

Sometimes we need broad communities that remind us we are not alone. Sometimes we need incredibly specific ones filled with people whose bodies work in a similar way to ours and who have already tried the thing we are wondering whether we can do.

Facebook groups are underrated. Whether you are looking for people with a particular injury, a new hobby, other cat owners or people who really like dachshunds, there is probably a community somewhere.

Wipeout after wipeout after wipeout

I am not a professional surfer. I am fumbling along.

I remember the first four times I went surfing, I just could not pop up. It was wipeout after wipeout after wipeout.

I do not think I was going to give up. But everyone supporting me was so excited for me to win that, in some ways, I wanted to keep doing it both for myself and for them.

We were all in it together.

That support makes me want to keep showing up. I am finding so much joy in the fact that, at 38 years old, I can still be a beginner.

There are not many places in life where adults are encouraged to be completely new at something. Surfing is one of the places where I can simply be. I do not need to be the CEO, the author, the educator or the advocate. I can be the person who is still trying to stand up on the board.

Finding adaptive surfing

I am not yet advanced enough to be in the lineup, so my experience has mostly been through adaptive surfing clinics.

The people and volunteers who run them understand that it may be someone’s first time in the water. They understand that we might arrive with a lot of anxiety or that, without their encouragement, we might never have tried surfing at all.

It has been really fun to meet volunteers who are just as invested in my success as I am. They want to make sure I have the best possible time on the board and in the ocean.

So far, everyone I have met through surfing has been incredibly supportive. The number of people who have been genuinely excited about me exploring this part of myself has been really heartwarming.

Community has been central to everything I have built. I would not have called myself a disability advocate until I found the disability community. Once I found my people, I realised I was not alone. Then I began to understand the voice, power and influence we could have collectively.

Surfing has reminded me of that lesson all over again.

My fearless era or my redemption era

Someone once asked me how I overcome fear when I climb.

My first answer was that when I enter the climbing gym, I sign a waiver. When I go surfing, I sign one there, too.

There are risks. I want to acknowledge that rather than pretend fear is imaginary.

But I have also been trying to decide which era of my life I am currently in. If we bring Taylor Swift into it, I cannot decide whether this is my fearless era or my redemption era.

The fearless part comes from knowing that I was in a car accident in which someone passed away, and I am still alive.

I think about that often, although not in a morbid way. I am still here. How can I have as much fun and adventure as possible?

I call it PFJ: play, fun and joy.

I was also a child who experienced things I would never wish for another child to experience. I felt as though I had to grow up very quickly. Now, climbing helps me reconnect with that younger version of myself, while surfing gives me another place to play.

My redemption era is about everyone who told me I could not do something while I was growing up, including the times I told myself I could not. It is about trying the things I genuinely believed I would never be able to do.

Finding people who believe in you

There have been so many spaces in my life where people believed in me before I believed in myself.

I do not particularly like the phrase ‘fake it till you make it’. At least for me, I did not need to fake anything. I needed someone to believe in me.

My inner critic still gets loud sometimes. In those moments, I remind myself that the mission is bigger than my doubt.

I also think about the messages I receive from people with a paralyzed arm like mine, or from parents of children with similar injuries. Some tell me they have never seen anyone with an arm like theirs. Others say they never thought they would be able to climb, ride a bike or have a job.

They tell me I am showing them possibility.

But the way I reached a place where I could show anyone else what was possible was by finding my own community first. I found people who rooted for me, cheered for me and allowed me to exist without having to prove anything.

Surfing has become one of those places.

My hope is that you find your people, too.

More from Tiffany Yu

Tiffany is also the author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World, a book that challenges stereotypes, explores disability and identity, and offers ways to build a more inclusive world.

The book is available now! Get the book →

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