I’m very happy to be in the World Championship this year. It's my first time, and I'm honored to meet so many people who have my same passion for surfing. I am the first woman in Italy to compete in an official surf competition and I hope I am up to it. I love surfing, I love my Italian team, I'm italian-american, I was born in US and I love being here now in the United States for this competition. 

I am from Italy and I’m 36. I was born with Osteogenis imperfecta, a bone and muscle fragility. I’ve been on a wheelchair for 16 years after a street accident, which caused me a spinal cord injury resulting in paraplegia.
I’ve been swimming since I was a child and I've been surfing since 2012. I teach at the swimming pool in the Spinal Unit in Florence (the city where I live), helping patients who enter conditions similar to mine and using the sport as an instrument to enhance autonomy. Basically I try to use my experience in a positive way, helping and “pushing” people who find themselves in the condition I am, to recover their strength and the will to get back into the game.

I work in a magical place, Dynamo Camp (a structure -belonging to the Serious Fun network - that offers recreational therapy to children with illnesses), where I deal with volunteers’ formation and different activities.
I organize events in the schools to promote social inclusion and road safety and during these meetings I share my story with the students and invite them to take part into empathic sport activities.

My dream is to bring more and more people with disability close to surfing. 

I am working in the Italian railway company and I am legal responsible for accessibility in the national stations. I have a very pretty guide black dog named Yashi.  

My surname sound like Funky!