Isle woman finds healing in waters of inclusion

When Ann Yoshida was yet a budding surfer, she and her friends would spend long hours honing their wave-riding skills along the North Shore — a bold choice for recreation given the legendary power of the area surf and, not insignificantly, the conspicuous lack of feminine presence in the lineups.

“We were the only girls out there,” said Yoshida, who will be one of hundreds of participants in this Saturday’s Na Koa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta at Fort DeRussy. “Now there are a lot of women out there, and that’s cool to see. But back then we were the only ones.”

Yet Yoshida and her friends found acceptance among the surfing brotherhood by dint of their growing abilities on the waves and their affable, low-key attitudes on and offshore.

With acceptance came a sense of belonging and the confidence to pursue her newfound passion without reservation.

The lessons of that adolescent experience would prove invaluable years later as Yoshida turned to the power of inclusion and the recuperative qualities of the ocean to rebuild her life following a horrific accident that robbed her of the use of her lower body.

The lifelong Mililani resident was born into a family of skilled watermen and women. As a young child Yoshida learned to snorkel as she accompanied her father on regular fishing jaunts.

“Before I surfed, I knew the bottoms of all the reefs by snorkeling,” she said.

Yoshida was an all-around athlete. She spent much of her childhood doing gymnastics. She also swam for Mililani High School, which she admits she did mostly “to get fit and to get out of school early.” But once she found her footing on those big-wave boards, Yoshida found she had scarcely any interest or time for anything else.

It was one of her two older brothers who introduced her to surfing at Mother’s near Sunset Beach. There she learned to engage the ocean with intention or risk getting pounded by powerful waves of indifferent nature.

Yoshida left her boards at home to attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she studied speech pathology.

In 2000 Yoshida was a passenger in a car that was struck by large truck that had run a traffic light. The violent impact ruptured her aorta, which deprived her spinal cord of oxygen. When she awoke from an extended coma, Yoshida found that she no longer had use of her body below her chest.

During her extensive rehabilitation, Yoshida met two former patients who served as rehabilitation mentors. One was an adventurer who despite his physical limitations participated in trekking expeditions around the world. The other, to Yoshida’s perspective, “seemed to be more victimized.”

“I knew I had to make a decision,” Yoshida said. “So I decided to take things one day at a time and try to be a person whose example was worth repeating to other people. That allowed me to discover what I could do and what I couldn’t. I still haven’t found anything that I can’t do, except climb stairs — and who wants to climb stairs anyway?”

Recovering back in Hawaii, Yoshida met a group of disabled athletes and learned to play wheelchair tennis. She dived in with typical aplomb and quickly developed into an elite-level player. She has since tried, and excelled in, adapted kayaking and paddling, rock climbing, canoe surfing, hand-cycling and other adapted sports and activities.

“I still wanted to be active and healthy and through that still have a life in society,” she said.

Yoshida, the first Native Hawaiian to compete in the Paralympics in kayaking, said returning to the ocean and learning a different way to surf helped her to reclaim an integral part of who she is.

“My identity was deeply linked to surfing, so when I was placed in a wheelchair, that identity was sort of put on the shelf,” she said. “But I had an incredible support system, and when I started surfing again, I found that identity was still inside of me. I was still a surfer, I just did it differently now. It was a rebirth, an empowerment, and it made me understand that what’s ahead of me is my choice.”

In the years since, Yoshida has earned numerous water sport titles, including 2017 International Surfing Association Women’s Prone Adaptive Surfer World Champion, 2016 International Canoe Federation Women’s V-1 Vaa World Champion and 2016 Women’s K-1 Paralympian.

As she has pushed beyond disability to achieve a widening set of personal goals, Yoshida said she is constantly reminded of the importance of inclusion, of retraining connections to the things that mean the most to you.

To help others in that regard, Yoshida pursued a multipronged course of academic development. She completed her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology, earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Utah State University and completed a doctorate in occupational therapy from Pacific University.

She has also devoted years of energy and effort to AccesSurf Hawaii, a nonprofit organization that promotes adaptive water sports, ocean recreation and therapeutic instruction for people with disabilities.

“My goal is to do all that I can to promote inclusion and help people experience the healing power of the ocean,” she said.

On Aug. 23 Yoshida will become the first adaptive athlete inducted into the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame.

Before that Yoshida, whose father served in the Air Force, will participate in the Na Koa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta, an annual event to assist recovering troops. A record 98 teams are expected to participate in this year’s regatta Saturday in waters off Fort DeRussy.

For more information on the regatta, visit nakoaregatta.org/regatta.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.