“I waited a long time to get married. I wanted to make sure I had truly found my person."
In one of the sweeter stories on a day where the explosive thuds are still being heard from the Trump show trial in New York, the big-wave world champ Keala Kennelly has wedded long-time girlfriend Nadia Caldarella in a ceremony in Santorini, Greece.
Keala Kennelly, the forty-five-year-old big-waver who showed Pipe and Teahupoo could be surfed by gals married graphic designer and editor Nadia Caldarella who is also “a professional and compassionate pet sitter…who… specializes in animals with anxiety and seniors who need patience and care” . The pair shared photos of the barefoot, all-white wedding overlooking the deep blue Aegean Sea.
“I waited a long time to get married,” wrote Keala Kennelly. “I wanted to make sure I had truly found my person. With you @nadiaclicks there is no doubt.”
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Many good wishes followed including from Blue Crush star Kate Bosworth whose character in the film, Annmarie, eyes Keala, who plays herself, enviously as she fills up the gas in her jet skis and signs autographs for fans.
Last year, Kauai-born Keala revealed to People magazine that playing straight on tour nearly killed her and that she was riddled with self-hate for being gay.
“I had just all this internalized homophobia and self-hatred for being gay,” Kennelly said.
“I was living this double life because on tour, I was pretending to be straight. I’m just a really honest person, I’m a really genuine, authentic person. So, to feel like I was living this lie was just crushing my soul and after so many years of that, it was just, ‘I can’t do this anymore, this is actually going to kill me if I can’t live my truth.’ It got to a point where I didn’t care what the cost was, I couldn’t live like this.”
Kennelly said that it was “not okay to be a lesbian” and that if you did prefer shaved babylike snatches to rock-and-cock Tom Selleck lookalikes it was “career suicide.”
“So when I got on the tour, I was so freaking nervous because I inherently knew I was gay. So, I was absolutely terrified and I spent the majority of my time on the pro circuit in the closet and just completely terrified to come out — completely terrified to get outed, that I was going to lose my sponsors.”
In 2005, when Kennelly, aged twenty-seven, eventually came out she “faced a wave of homophobia from companies and other surfers that eventually led her to leave the sport… I actually quit the tour shortly after I came out because I couldn’t handle mentally and emotionally what that was like. Then I had a few sponsors drop me and so, that was just more confirmation that it wasn’t okay. I left the tour because, emotionally and mentally, I just couldn’t handle it.”
All’s well that ends well, etc.
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Punk song about surfing, 1989:
https://open.spotify.com/tr…
Surfing is so gay.
I’m not gay but everyone else is. 🏄♀️
I have a gay friend. They name is Surfing.
no one ever thought that she was straight, ever
didn’t have to come out, no stress required
It’s hard to know what sponsors said to her. AFAIK she was dropped by a few.
Was this all just in her own head, due to experiences she had as a girl? Or was it really career suicide then?
We all know that some of our greatest fears are just things we conjure up, ourselves. But then some are real. And sometimes the trauma we experience as teenagers causes us to see the world through very distorted lenses later on.
This would make a really interesting interview with her, if she is willing to discuss it openly and authentically.
She was obviously gay and her sponsors knew it.
The women’s draw was filled with Lesbians since the inception of pro surfing, nothing shocking.
If you want to pyscho analyze something, how bout people who grew up in or near Hanalei?
Otherwise, this is just a bunch of bullshit.
TBH what you wrote is exactly what I have always thought when she has said this stuff in the past.
That’s why I think it would be interesting to hear it from her mouth.
Does she really believe this? Was it a fake ploy for attention as she pulled the plug on her contest career? Did she have other issues and this was something to hide behind?
I still wish they’d made all the seasons of John from Cincinnati. I knew a guy who worked on the show and saw the whole script. It would have been interesting.
If it’s not clear, I’m really bored of the same old surfer interviews about winning some heat . I want to hear how fucked up some of these people really are.😈
Nadia sounds really cool.
It sucks that Keala went through that.
Where I was in 2005, nobody cared if someone was gay, and lesbian athletes went without special notice. I wasn’t in Hawaii, though, or in the “surf industry.”
I guess staring at big pictures of fit bare chested men all the time, in the mags, made the guys in the surf industry protest too much.
Well, that and Fred Van Dyke’s quip in 1965…
nothing like munching crotch cobbler while someone munches yours, I guess..and afterwards, both get a proper buggering …since thats only thing that will straighten them out, I reckon
“Shaved baby like” , farrk if a guy said that he would be in fucken jail.
Surely she did not actually say that ??
No. It’s not in quotes. She didn’t say it.
This would be a good interview question to ask her. 🤣
I have a friend who doesn’t shave because she thinks it’s too much like pedophilia. It’s an idea that does occur to some people.
Interesting because I have seen the same quote getting arround for sometime mmmm and she actually said it in the people magazine article pretty amazing it actually gets past the gate keepers , but hey I guess that’s gay white washing for you.
fuck that sandwich not gonna come any time soon now…
If you can’t stand the heats get outta the kitchen and get me a beer!
gerryactrics…haitian divorce to follow…lahiana men~mana…
Shame I wasnt invited to nuptials. I would have snuck in a belt or suspenders for the groom on her registry. Weird how they/them wear their pants with such sag. Or we should have the tailor drawn and quartered for not doing better.
Every” professionl pet sitters ” dream come true
But will keala make the drop ?
Don’t mention the drop! I got pitchforked!
Beautiful. Good on them. And sounds like Nadia has some skills that could be put to use down here: “Nadia Caldarella who is also ‘a professional and compassionate pet sitter…who… specializes in animals with anxiety and seniors who need patience and care.'”
with that doggy name otto be patient zero…
Santorini ?
Interesting.
Though maybe the nearby island of Lesbos was too obvious a choice.
P.S.
If her old Kauai mate Brucey was invited (and got weekend rehab leave), how many airport connections would he’ve made ?
Oh you bad man.
You think she’ll stick the take-off on that thigh-high wave?
you’re a patient. sorry, had to laugh.
Finally some good old fashioned gay news amid all this trans hoopla. I miss these kinds of classical gays and lesbians.
It really is a blast from the past!
fell in luv w/ keala after toking hash in a gay bar…and am not gay!
https://www.mermaidwinery.c…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
also The Dating Game: “Where’s the strangest place you two have had sex?”