On January 28th, Sophia Tiaré Bartlow died in a car wreck on Oahu. Her friends, family, and the entire surf community was devastated. The attendance for her paddle out and the memorial service was huge.
At just after 10 pm, the car Bartlow was in hit a tree on Waialua Beach Road in Waialua. The driver is under investigation.
Bartlow, the daughter of world champion longboarder Jericho Poppler, was a force of personality that left an indelible mark on everyone she met. As a competitive longboarder and SUP Tour National Champion, Bartlow was raised in Long Beach and proudly called herself a “third-generation water woman.”
Over a loudspeaker, traditional Hawaiian music played while around 300 surfers paddled out on Saturday at Huntington Beach to honor her life, yelling her mantra: “Love, shine, glow! Love, shine, glow!”
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” said Courtney Conlogue to the OC Register. “I love how happy, energetic and colorful she was.” Conlogue met Bartlow when they were children.
“I’ve never in my whole life been around so much love, it’s incredible,” said Jericho Poppler. “It’s because of what we do and what we love to do, and that’s ride waves. Sophia is now riding waves for us up there, and she’s ripping.”
