Caite Sorano

Caite Sorano, Ocean Surfari Store Manager, joined OS in 2023 and brought with her 20+ years of retail experience.

She hails from the Northeast on the U.S. mainland, but she has lived in quite a few places.

She says the Virgin Islands is her favorite place to call home so far.

That’s likely because of her adventuresome spirit, which was cultivated young. “I once got lost in the hills in Ireland, where I made friends with a bull. It was all very exciting at 8 years old till my parents found me and were chased by said bull. They made it to safety behind a barbed wire fence, but it resulted in me being grounded for a very long time.”

She has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology with a minor in psychology, which sounds very serious. But she is not. Her humor is evident.

She says her hobbies here in USVI are “chasing roosters out of the yard, leaving my flip flops at the beach, asking our electric company not to have rolling blackouts on my day off, and cooking. I also love putting things in my Amazon cart which I will never purchase.”

As a store manager, Caite says, “I select music from the 80’s that my team has never heard of. I write schedules outside of the team’s availability, put out fires, and I drink a lot of energy drinks.

Outside of that, I train and develop talent to maximize potential, increase sales and profitability, and create an environment of teamwork, trust and leadership.”

She says customers are her focus when they enter an Ocean Surfari store and she wants them to enjoy their visit.

“They think I am funny — well at least funny looking. I like our customers to have a great experience — treating each of them like family.

If that doesn’t work, I just look sad — really, really sad — so they feel bad for me.”