- December 23, 2024
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Between being captain of the volleyball team, serving over 500 hours of community service and trying to graduate high school, no one really knows when Olivia Squires-Propper found time to release her own paddle board.
Like most other Seabreeze High School seniors, Olivia Squires-Propper likes to hang out with her friends and spend her free lunch periods having picnics on the beach. Unlike most of her peers, her free periods are usually few and far between, and her packed schedule can keep her on campus sometimes till 10 p.m.
The list of her academic, athletic and volunteer involvement could probably be the same length as the 17 year old, who stands at just under 5’6 with blonde hair falling well past her shoulders and big, bright eyes that tell you she’s ready to take on the world.
“I just wanted to be a part of everything,” Squires-Propper said when asked how she managed to get so involved. Surprise, surprise, she’s always been like this. “Growing up, I was on four basketball teams at one time, and in middle school I started my own going green club. It’s a lot of planning ahead, and when something changes you gotta go with the flow. It’s being ok with using your lunch period to do things for clubs or schoolwork. It’s stressful, but I love it.”
She also grew up the daughter of legendary East Coast Surfing Champion Gary Propper, which meant a lot of days at the beach.
“I would take them to the beach all the time,” Gary Propper said of his two daughters, Olivia and Winona. “Being little kids taking them into the water was a total fear factor, but I would make it fun with all of them. They were just always beach people and around the water. That’s the way it was.”
Gary Propper was sponsored by Hobie back in the ‘60s, and when they approached him about releasing his old line of boards, he told them he was bringing his daughter along for the ride. The senior got into paddle boarding a few years ago, and will release her own paddle board in January.
“I like to paddle board in the river because it’s more calm and I can do yoga tricks,” Olivia Squires-Propper said.
“Olivia and Winona are natural athletes,” Propper said. “I’m real proud that Olivia got into the stand up paddle board. So I told her ‘Let’s do it and carry on the Propper name.’”
After his surfing career, Propper went on to become successful in entertainment management, working with big names like Blondie, The Police and Carrot Top. His job, however, kept him mainly in California and away from his daughters. Their mother, Laura Squires, raised them mainly by herself in Ormond Beach.
“I want the credit for how awesome they turned out,” she laughed. “Their dad would live with us part-time, but when they were older he got more uninvolved. It wasn’t until two or three years ago that he started reaching out again.”
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of those two girls,” Propper said. “Their mother is just stellar. I’m the rat, I’m not a normal person and they haven’t taken on any my bad traits. They got all of Laura’s and the community’s good traits. Anything I can do for them, I do. They’re so into helping other people besides themselves, and they really feel for people. That’s what this country needs again, so that’s another reason why I did that surfboard for the her. She’s deserving of it.”
The Olivia Propper Board
The Olivia Propper SUP Board will be 9’5 in length, 31 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches thick. The nose is slightly rounded, as well as the pintail and there is a little rocker in the ears of the nose. The board also includes tie downs for lifejackets and assortments on both the tail and the nose with an offset handle. It is being custom-designed by Hobie shaper Mark Johnson. It will be blue in color to compliment the flower decals. It is scheduled to premiere at the Orlando Surf Expo in January. The boards will be available for purchase at hobie.com as well as a variety of retail outlets.
Gary Propper, surfing legend
The top-paid surfer of his generation, Gary Propper was the winner of the 1966 East Coast Surfing Championships and the first international surfer from the Eastern Seaboard. He was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame 1996, and currently resides in Cocoa Beach.
