CAPBRETON, FRANCE
BIOGRAPHY
We tend to think of beauty in a box, confined by what we are told it should be. But true beauties like Victoria Vergaga are natural - leading natural lives in salt-filled air on wave-filled seas.
Mason Ho is all three. The North Shore’s most out-there personality is the son of Michael Ho and nephew of Derek, Hawaii’s first world champ. The famous brothers owned Pipeline and made a mark during their time on the World Tour in the 1980s and 90s. And his sister, Coco happens to be one of the most dominant surfers on the Womens Tour.
Vergaga, Reef’s newest ambassador from Hossegor, France, wasn’t drawn to modeling. She was pulled to the sea at an early age. Born in France, her parents traveled the world and moved to Reunion Island when she was 14, where she practiced the arts of cross-stepping and drawn out turns. A self-professed tomboy, she wasn’t interested in make-up or fashion. When the first modeling offers came along, she turned them down, choosing to live by the beach and surf, instead of pursuing modeling in Paris.
And that decision is what makes her truly beautiful, as today she is an advocate of the kind of natural beauty that comes from the beach lifestyle. She has figured modeling into her surfing life, in her own terms. The last year has already taken her to Australia, Nicaragua, Portugal, New York, and California. Beauty doesn’t come in a box. Beauty doesn’t live in a box.