If you want to teach your kids to surf, prepare for a major journey! “How did you get your daughter to surf? My kid won’t go near a board, he’s too scared!” Says an old friend from Surfing Mums that I bumped into in the water.  Not infrequently, parents ask me how I’ve taught my eight year old to paddle out the back with me and catch waves.  For any parent, teaching your kids to surf is a process with ups and downs. My daughter and I have got through the tough times because we are a team.  We’ve built a strong foundation of communication and trust that allows me to encourage her ..read more

They say everything happens for a reason. At the time, I wondered why I was standing in an icy stream in Australia’s Snowy Mountains hugging 25 perfect strangers as tears rolled down my cheeks.  Yet, deep down I knew my path has followed my natural curiosity. The reason I did breathwork teacher training was because breathing and surfing have always been intertwined for me and I was ready to take my knowledge to the next level. In November, I spent a weekend in the mountains learning to become a breathing instructor.  I’ve taught breathing and meditation at my retreats, but wanted to ..read more

We’ve just started offering our WaterWoman’s Guide FREE of charge to our newsletter subscribers, so I thought it’s time to clarify just what a WaterWoman is and why you’d want to become one. By the way, this guide is 40+ pages of everything you need to know about overcoming fear and becoming a better surfer including 30 day work out plan and overview of our mindset program. Table of Contents What’s Up With That Term, “WaterWoman”? FOR OUR PURPOSES, WHAT IS A WATERWOMAN? Determining your surfing level OUR DEFINITION OF “BASIC SURF EXPERIENCE”:  Improving your surfing level OCEAN UNDERS ..read more

Table of Contents Have you suffered surf injuries that has made it difficult to get back into the water? Then this post is for you. Tell us a little bit about where you live and where you like to surf? When did you learn to surf? How long did it take you to start riding a shortboard and/or surfing in more serious waves? How do you know your limits? How do you decide whether the surf is too big or dangerous for you? Do you have any special tactics or practices you use to deal with fear before, during, or after you surf? (i.e. meditation, visualisation, physical training). Tell us about you ..read more

Since most gyms are closed and we are all still hanging at home, I thought I’d share a collection of my favorite surfer exercise routines from around the web. While these surf exercise routine videos will be especially helpful if you’ve been out of the water for a while due to quarantine, you can use surf workouts to build your strength and mobility and really see results when you get back into the water. The truth is that so many of us don’t have time to get to the gym everyday. As we get older, responsibilities coupled with aging can really drag us down in terms of surf fitness. However, the ..read more

FROM CHILE TO OREGON TO PUERTO ESCONDIDO, LEARN HOW KATIE MCCONNELL IS OVERCOMING FEAR TO SURF BIGGER WAVES. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHERE YOU LIKE TO SURF? I’m currently living in the north of Chile, in the heart of the Atacama Desert, a land of urchin-covered slabs and death-defying bodyboarders. This is one of my favorite corners of the world, and I happened to find myself here as the coronavirus pandemic started ramping up… So I took stock of my few possessions and decided to stay in a little room just steps from some waves. I only recently acquired a board, so I’ve ..read more

DID YOU KNOW A SURFER’S MINDSET CAN HELP YOU THROUGH EVERYTHING FROM SURFING BIG WAVES TO RIDING THE STORM OF SOCIAL ISOLATION AND COVID-19 OUT? This mindset toolkit was originally designed for WaterWomen to use in the water as we navigate bigger swell and surf conditions that cause us anxiety.  But that was before COVID-19.   Waking up each day to news of a global pandemic, preparing your household for isolated living, and learning to social distance are now the most stressful pain points of our day-to-day life.  Notwithstanding, many of us have lost our freedom to surf, do our ..read more

HERE’S HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT SURFBOARD: BUT, FIRST A LOVE STORY. I love surfboards.  I horde surfboards.  I buy and sell boards constantly.  I have bought and sold over 100 surfboards in my life and learned quite a bit since my first board, a neon yellow 6’6″ Canyon Surfboard that I selected from the used rack at Hanson’s Surf Shop in Encinitas when I was 7.  I’ve ridden pintailed thrusters, fat keeled fin fishes, longboards, Simmons-inspired shapes, Tomo’s, and foils. But throughout my surfing journey, one thing has stayed consistent: I really, really love surf-ridding c ..read more

Who knew my life lessons from surfing would serve me well through natural breech child birth? Table of Contents “He still hasn’t turned:” A (Long) Breech Birth Story Surfing life Lesson #1 – That Feeling in My Bones: Trusting Myself Surfing life Lesson #2 – Controlling My Cavewoman Brain: Meditation & Breath Surfing life Lesson #3 – Training Hard & Letting Go Surfing life Lesson #4 – Leaning into What Scared Me “He still hasn’t turned:” A (Long) Breech Birth Story I was 37 weeks pregnant when I went in for a routine ultrasound. I was getting to the pointy end of my pregnancy; the pa ..read more

THE WOMEN ON OUR TELOS ISLANDS SURFARI FACED A TRULY UNEXPECTED TEST OF CHARACTER. LEARN HOW THEY CHOSE TO OVERCOME FEAR AND GO SURFING THE TELOS ISLANDS. The True Story of the Shipwrecked Sea Hearts ALL SOULS OK SOS HIT A REEF ITS 22:00 LOCAL TIME OFF PADANG INDONESIA WE ABANDONED BOAT NOW ON AN ISLAND NEARBY PLEASE CALL HELP MEDIVAC -.9500 LONG 100.1418 It’s 8:30 AM on a sunny Sunday morning. I’m sitting on the couch in San Diego, California, nursing my three month old son. I do a double take of this message as it jumps on to my screen. I can’t comprehend what I am reading. Is this a joke? A ..read more