#186 "Fear is the Cancer of the Athletic Soul" with Surfing Champion Lakey Peterson

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome surfing champion Lakey Peterson. Lakey won the junior nationals at 14 and qualified for the World Surf League at 16. She is an incredible role model for young athletes and share many great wisdom nuggets during our time together. We dive into the inclusiveness of the surfing community, being an intentional female role model, and overcoming fear. 

Highlights from the Podcast:

• The book Lakey brings with to every competition 

• How to keep the balance of enjoying surfing and competing 

• What Lakey does to focus and stay in the moment

• Using keywords written on her hand to stay in the right mindset

• The story of how Lakey got into surfing

• Winning the junior nationals at 14 and qualifying for the WSL at 16

• Learning to get better from losing

• Training the mental and physical for peak performance 

• Being an intentional role model for young girls

• Defining and overcoming fear

•  The use of meditation to increase performance 

• Building trust between coach and athlete 

• Taking responsibility of wins and losses

• Financial compensation equality in the WSL

You can find more about Lakey at:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeyPeterson/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lakeypeterson
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/LakeyPeterson
• World Surf League Profile: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/athletes/2156/lakey-peterson

Lakey Peterson grew up in California’s right-point-rich playground of Santa Barbara. She learned to surf at the age of five during a year-long trip around the world with her family, but when she got back to California the unapologetic tomboy was too busy terrorizing soccer fields and tennis courts to bother much with the beach. Showing the same competitive drive that made her mother a national champion swimmer, Lakey was dominating the boys her age on the playground, as her fellow CT counterpart Conner Coffin (an old schoolmate) can attest.

But by age 12 she grew tired of driving for hours to tennis tournaments, and being she’d already racked up a national surfing title, going full throttle down the surfing path seemed much more alluring. At 14, she was the first woman to pull an aerial maneuver in competition. At 16, surfing as a wildcard in her first-ever Championship Tour event, she finished runner up at the US Open of Surfing. She qualified that same year and came back to win the US Open in 2012 on her way to claiming rookie of the year.

A future World Title run seemed all but certain in the eyes of pundits and fans, but she’s been winless in her five seasons since 2012, finishing consistently just below a revolving list of World Title contenders. That all changed in 2018 when Lakey claimed victories on the Gold Coast and at Keramas to battle Stephanie Gilmore for the World Title. Lakey’s prospects for her first Title were high, but she was eventually defeated by Alana Blanchard in Round 2 of the Beachwaver Pro Maui, ending the season in the No. 2 position.

Sadly the pattern followed in 2019 when a defeat to Stephanie Gilmore in Maui yet again ended her World Title dreams. In a double-blow, her early exit also meant that she missed out on selection for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Lakey’s fast-driving style and whip turns make her especially vicious in down the line pointbreaks like the ones she spent her formative years in. That explains her solid results at Snapper Rocks, Keramas and Jeffrey’s Bay, the recent additions to the women’s Championship Tour.

Lakey’s positivity, consistency, and talent mean she is a perennial threat. More importantly, she remains more determined than ever to claim her first World Title.

 

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