Surf Shacks 043
I’m Karina Elizabeth Bergheim Petroni, my mother is Norwegian and my father was of Italian decent. I am 50% Viking and 50% Mafia, a very spicy combo.
I was born and raised in the Canal Zone of Panama, where my father was a pilot taking ships through the extraordinary Panama Canal. My upbringing was filled with adventure and numerous “bare foot” escapades.
I started surfing at 9 and quickly became involved in the local surf competitions which snowballed into a full blown professional surfing career by age 12. I surfed on the world tour for about 11 years and I am still the last woman from the East Coast of the USA to qualify for the world tour.
I met my now husband back in the fall of 2009, quickly fell in love and married him in 2013. I have now lived in The Bahamas full time since 2010 and have adapted to yet another adventure-filled lifestyle that involves flying in sea planes to look for unchartered waves, spearfishing our meals and diving in the clearest waters I have ever seen.
I still have my wonderful ties in the surf community and industry and have somewhat rebranded myself into a “adventuring water woman.” I have had the pleasure of collaborating with like minded people and creating beautiful imagery and content through out the last couple years and plan on creating more magic in years to come.
I started surfing in Atlantic Beach, Florida, my parents were commuting between Panama and Florida by the time I was 6 years old. My parents had me in the water at 6 months, and had me boogie boarding at 4 years old, although my brother didn’t push me into my first surfing wave until age 9.
I came down to the Bahamas on a 3 day weekend whim with a friend back in the fall of 2009. I met my now husband David, quickly fell in love and married him in 2013. That is an incredibly short answer to that question! [laughs]
The Bahamas is a very special place. There are pros and cons to living anywhere in the world. The cons are that it is very inconvenient to live here, anything that would take you 1 hour to do in the US, takes about “tree” here. The pros are there is endless beauty surrounding you and you have so much freedom. The more dependable you are upon yourself living down here, the happier and less frustrated you will be. I love how the Bahamians are a very happy people, they love to laugh, fish, crack jokes, enjoy the simple pleasures of life and can speak very openly about God and their faith as it is a very strong Christian nation. They mostly pride themselves off the fact that the astronauts state “The Bahamas is the most beautiful place to look at from space.”
Yes, the sea plane has now become the first wife, I definitely “take the back seat,” but I don’t mind, because she’s pretty sweet. It has always been a lifelong dream of my husband to have his own sea plane. He flew in both his parents’ seaplanes his whole upbringing down here, and quickly fell in love. It is a feeling like no other landing on the water, pitching the anchor and paddling out to the waves. It is well worth the extensive maintenance.
Well, if I told you about them they wouldn’t be secret anymore. Anyone who makes an effort to come down, visit us and brings some food and wine with them, gets the privilege of seeing some special places!
One of the reasons our place in Harbour Island is very special is because it used to be David’s mother’s house. It has been in his family for about 20 years, so most of the soul and great ambience it possesses comes from the tremendous amount of love that surrounded it for so long. A lot of adventures have spurred from this home and it has some fabulous, classic, roots.
The bottle collection is mainly from David’s mom, the castaways she didn’t want. David and I found a lot of them ourselves as well. Since the Bahamas is such an old nation and used to be occupied by the British, there was a vast amount of old bottles and artifacts kicking around. David’s mom quickly got wind of it, and started diving them up off the bottom, if you like treasure and fancy old, rustic, crude bottles, this is quite an addicting hobby.
My favorite past time besides surfing has to be free diving. The Bahamas boasts some of the most beautiful and clearest waters in the world. The marine life here is just spectacular. On almost any given day you can throw on your fins, mask and swimsuit and go out and glide next to the Eagle Rays. The underwater world here is like no other.
Yes, I get island fever from time to time. A lot of people think it’s absolutely crazy how we live and don’t quite get how we cope. The most popular question we get asked is, “What do you do all day?” we laugh at that one. There is an endless amount of things to do when you live on an island, we are constantly repairing things, maintaining things and getting into projects. You have to work hard to play hard around here. It isn’t like you just flick a switch and the light comes on, you have to create it yourself. I have a huge appreciation for power, water and all the small details that we take for granted living in the USA after living down here.
Currently The Bahamas is facing serious environmental threats. The most poignant being, the threat of China being able to commercially fish in this country. China has been in talks with The Bahamian government and there is rumor that they will be allowed to conduct commercial fishing operations in the country. The Bahamas marine ecosystem is so delicate and overfished already, that the introduction of China fishing here will essentially destroy the future of the Bahamian marine life. The oceans are what link us all together in the first place, so we should do everything we can to protect it. It would mean a lot to us along with the whole country if everyone took a moment to sign this petition.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any waves in The Bahamas…
Try and live each day like it was your last. Life is so precious, we have no idea how many days we have left. Praise each birthday you’re able to receive, as age is something deprived of many. Try to have a passport full of stamps rather than a house full of stuff and never stop exploring, dreaming and discovering.
Discover more creative surfers’ homes in our book, “Surf Shacks®”
A goofy-footed graphic designer who hails from the first state, Delaware. After attending Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL then graduating from SCAD in Savannah, GA with a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration, Matt moved to NYC and found work as a freelance designer and art director. In 2006 he moved west to Venice, CA where he co-founded ITAL/C Studio and now resides a bit further north in Oxnard.
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