Brooke surfs waves tall enough to swallow a Greyhound bus. With names like Black Mass and Detonator topping her list of favorite play spots, it’s surprising that her kayaking roots come from splashing around in a pond. “When I was 13 my dad took me to a pond in Missoula and taught me how to roll. Then he signed me and my friends up for a local kayaking club,” she says. Brooke most enjoyed just spending time with friends on the water, but then the club created a small racecourse, and Brooke beat the entire class. “That day was the most defining moment that helped build my confidence when I was learning how to kayak.”

This spring, Brooke competed in Unleashed, a new multistage whitewater kayak event in northern Quebec. Over the course of 10 days, the competition tested kayakers on exceptionally big, powerful, and cold whitewater. “This type of competition pushes the sport,” says Brooke. “It was a way for me to push my own paddling, by kayaking and competing with the best big-wave paddlers in the world.” Brooke placed second overall, behind fellow American shredder Darby McAdams.

No matter how progressive, freestyle kayaking competitions tend to highlight a different, less inspiring, side of the sport: the inequality of funding and prize money between male and female paddlers. “During Unleashed, the top three men all had paid sponsorship and the top three women didn’t. In fact, two out of the five women had to leave the competition early to go back to work!” Brooke believes that part of the reason there are not more women competing in kayaking events is that they don’t have the same paid sponsorship opportunities as men. “Prize money is almost always less for females, and there are usually fewer spots on national teams.” Brooke isn’t afraid to tell organizers that she will attend next year if the prize money for men and women is equal. “Women often get half the prize money and we train just as much and compete on the same feature. It’s such a slap in the face because we work so hard.”