What happens when you refuse to let surfing fit into just one category?

In this episode of The Temple of Surf Podcast, I sit down with Camden Hoover, a surfer whose relationship with the ocean crosses different boards, different waves, and increasingly, different sides of competitive surfing.

Camden is equally comfortable expressing herself on a shortboard or a longboard, bringing an approach to surfing built around versatility, progression, style, and a genuine love for being in the water.

But her journey is evolving.

Beyond competing and riding waves herself, Camden has also stepped into surf judging, giving her a completely different perspective on performance. Instead of only thinking about what she wants to do on a wave, she now has to observe other surfers, analyze their decisions, understand criteria, and evaluate what separates one performance from another.

That experience brings us to an important recent chapter in her story.

Camden participated as a judge at the 2026 Virginia Beach Super Girl Surf Festival, held over Labor Day weekend, September 5–7.

Surfing was at the heart of the three-day event, anchored by a World Surf League QS4000 women's competition and surrounded by a much broader celebration of women in sport, music, wellness, and community.

For Camden, however, what interests us is the view from the judging side.

How does your understanding of surfing change when you stop being the competitor and start evaluating what is happening on the wave?

Does judging make you look differently at your own surfing?

And what can someone who rides both shortboards and longboards bring to that perspective?

These questions form just one part of a much broader conversation.

Throughout the episode, we explore Camden's personal surfing journey, her relationship with shortboarding and longboarding, competitive surfing, style, progression, and the experiences that continue to shape the surfer she is becoming.

We talk about what draws her back to the ocean and why surfing doesn't need to be defined by one board, one discipline, or one idea of what a surfer is supposed to be.

That versatility is perhaps what makes Camden's story particularly interesting.

Modern surfing offers more possibilities than ever before. Competition can coexist with creativity. Performance can coexist with style. Shortboards and longboards can offer completely different experiences while sharing the same fundamental connection with the wave.

And now, by experiencing surfing from the judge's chair as well as from the lineup, Camden is discovering yet another dimension of the sport.

This episode is a conversation about surfing, competition, longboarding, shortboarding, judging, progression, surf culture, and following your own path through the ocean.

Whether you love competitive surfing, traditional longboarding, high-performance shortboarding, or simply the feeling of riding waves, Camden's story is a reminder that there is no single way to be a surfer.

🎙️ Listen to the full conversation with Camden Hoover on The Temple of Surf Podcast.