Daniel the Fighter
Daniel Tieman decided to go biking with a couple of buddies in the hills of Orange County. The group started to go down steep hills, ones that are very familiar to them, at very quick speeds. Tieman hit a rock, fell and injured his knee pretty seriously. The second he hit the ground, the 18 year old knew that his surfing career was done.
Tieman was born and raised in a small surf town in South Orange County called San Clemente. Growing up a block from the beach in a town with a huge surf culture, Tieman always knew he wanted to be a professional surfer.
“Growing up on the beach and in the waves here, I always wanted to be a part of the surf scene and to be one of the best in San Clemente,” he says.
And he did just that.
Going in the water with his dad, Tieman began to learn the ropes of surfing. Things really started to heat up when he was about 13 years old. It was around this age when he began to start doing local surf competitions throughout Orange County.
At first meeting, Tieman seems quiet, shy and not very competitive. The more you get to know him, though, the more you realize this assumption is incorrect.
When he started competing, he realized that he was a very good surfer. He kept winning small competitions and even got to compete in places like Costa Rica and Bali. He continued to thrive and win several more heats, thinking that this was going to be the path for his career.
After his biking accident, Tieman got two knee surgeries to attempt to get his surfing career back on track. The surgeries helped, but unfortunately he was still in too much pain to compete at the best of his ability.
Today, Tieman is 24 years old and continues to thrive. He is still involved in surf culture, sticking with two of his best friends, Kolohe Andino and Griffin Colapinto, who are both professional surfers currently on the tour.
Tierman shows what is really like to just go with the flow in life. He didn’t want his surfing career to end, but he knows that surfing will always be a big part of who he is and will continue to fight through as he attacks his next chapter in life.
