aloha,
meet sunny kazama:
sunny is a lovely human being and the 1st athlete we ever sponsored.
born and raised in hawaii
2024 surfer of the year (hawaii surfing association)
led her high-school surf team to its 1st state championship
currently part of the university of san diego surf team
what a legend.
she's also been an avid blok user since december 2024, logging a total of 700+ blok sessions (215+ total days blok'd) and once achieving a streak of 76 days.
"so why do you even use blok?", i once asked her.
"before blok, i used to stay in bed scrolling and that meant i would miss the best window of waves in the morning.
after blok, that didn't happen anymore."
i was stunned when i heard that.
it's a use-case i never could have predicted. ever.
so how did we meet and how did we sign her?
read on for a cool short story...
⊙
a few minutes after you onboard into the app, we send an automated email where we ask you how did it go.
naturally, the reply rate for this is very low.
but when sunny 1st onboarded, she took the time to respond and actually helped us identify some app bugs.
from there, we started chatting mostly through email, from the inconvenient bugs she was experiencing all the way to discussing features she hoped to see in the app.
to be frank, people like sunny are the main reason i still pour my entire life energy into blok.
if there's no one on the other side who's willing to give me this quality feedback, it's easy for me to think that there's no one that truly cares about the idea, so my motivation starts to drain as a result.
(sunny — if you're reading this, thanks so much!!!
you make my life more fun.)
anywho.
one random night as i was showering, the thought came:
"it'd be so cool if we sponsored sunny and had a blok sticker on her board. i'll ask next time we talk."
and so i did.
she was stoked about it and was down to make it happen.
we spent the next few week figuring out the contract, duration, sticker dimensions and placement on her board. but to be honest, the trust and relationship between us had been compounding for so many months that we both knew that it would happen - it was just a matter of time.
finally, when we agreed on a deal, i sent her a care package and she replied back with some cool pics letting me know that the sticker was on + some epic action shots too!
and that's the short story of how an automated email got us our 1st sponsored athlete, and we couldn't be happier that it was sunny.
a loyal, kind, and impressive human soul.
⊙
now for a lil sentimental, closing note:
building blok has been incredibly fulfilling for me in many ways.
the opportunity that i get to establish trusting, caring, and kind relationships with ppl that resonate and use the product, like with sunny, certainly makes my life better.
a few months after the sponsorship deal, sunny invited me to a surf competition that she and her ohana were organizing in o'ahu. ofc i accepted, which meant i got to go to hawaii for the 1st time!
this is us when we 1st met:
i've come to believe that the amount of joy you experience in life is directly proportional to how useful you are to others.
steve jobs said something along the lines of:
"as you grow older, you realize that life is not about how much water you can take from the river, but rather, how much you can pour in."
being useful is hard, and being useful to many ppl is even harder!
but when you're able to figure out how to package something of value and deliver it to others at scale, wonderful things will happen to you.
you will meet incredible ppl
you will have unforgettable experiences
you will go places you've never been before
maybe this is your sign to take that leap of faith :).
k that's all i got! gotta go back to it.
do let me know what you thought of this read.
i'm keen to hear your thoughts...
mahalo nui loa,
dani.
p.s. sunny recently helped pass a bill that has the state of hawaii recognize surfing as a sport at the high-school level (the only state in the u.s. to do so)! kudos to her and her ohana for making it happen.
this is her at the senate advocating for the bill:
