Moonlighting Surfer:  Taira Lei Aloha Barron
Born: Feb. 12, 1987
Home break: V-land
Job: Cocktail waitress and trail guide
By Alee Thompson


Every small town has a sweetheart. She’s the girl who everyone knows and loves and who represents the style of living that place is known for. For a town that’s known for surfing, beauty, and country living, Taira Lei Aloha Barron is the North Shore’s sweetheart. She rips, she works at a local restaurant and she’s a country girl at heart.

The Filipino-Mexican beauty was born at Kaiser Hospital to proud parents, Theresa and Tim, 21 years ago. While she was standing up on her first waves at Ali‘i Beach Park and Chun’s Reef, her older brothers, T.J. and Tory, were making names for themselves as some of the nation’s hottest groms. Taira soon followed suit, entering Menehune contests and eventually progressing to NSSA and HASA events, where she consistently placed well and made it all the way to the finals at NSSA Nationals at Lower Trestles, Calif. 

These days you won’t find Taira’s name on a heat sheet, but that’s the way she likes it. “It’s just not my thing. It takes the fun out of it,” she says. She’s usually surfing her favorite spots, V-land and Pupukea, with her brothers or best friends Marissa Eveland and the Bridgman sisters.  

While she’s in love with the waves the North Shore has to offer (her idea of a perfect wave is “V-land with no people out”), she’s become addicted to traveling. Her six-year relationship with O’Neill has given her the opportunity to travel around the world riding epic waves. She recently visited Peru, where she surfed mile-long lefts at Chicama with O’Neill’s European team, followed by a jaunt to Samoa, where she charged warm, perfect and empty breaks with FSM and Board Stories TV.

In between surf sessions and dream trips, Taira works at one of the North Shore’s busiest seafood grills, Haleiwa Joes.  If you frequent the restaurant you’ve probably seen her posted up at the hostess stand with a smile and a plumeria behind her ear, ready to take you to your seat. It wasn’t long before she was promoted and started training as one of Joe’s accommodating cocktail waitresses. 

When it’s flat and she’s got a day off, Taira’s not likely to be shopping or getting her nails done. Chances are she’s somewhere her phone doesn’t have reception, riding her three-year-old quarter horse Makani. “I’m a cowgirl under the surfer image. I like to rope and chase cattle,” she says. Taira works once a week as a trail guide at Kahuku’s gunstock ranch, where her horse is stabled. She’s in love with the countryside and the cowgirl lifestyle, proof being that when she had finally saved enough money to buy her first car, she opted to buy Makani instead.    

In an era of huge prize purses, ranking systems, endorsement deals, and big money contracts, it’s easy to shift focus away from the soulful side of surfing. Instead of pursuing the highly publicized route of competitive surfing that many of her peers chose to take, Taira is on a different route. “I don’t really like the spotlight, “ she explains. “I don’t thrive on fame.” The freedom she gets from not competing has allowed her to focus on the more personal side of surfing.  She surfs to have fun, to challenge herself and, like many who have grown up in the ocean, to enjoy the benefits of a close relationship with the ocean.