Hello!

Pull up a chair and pour yourself a cuppa as I tell the story of

how Eco Yoga Surf came to be

I grew up in the (landlocked!) Midlands, UK (think horses, shopping centers and Heartbreak High - the original series - as entertainment!) and after obtaining a University degree in Media Production (at Lincoln University), I moved to Cornwall. The plan was to have a summer of freedom before entering the world of work. I was nearly 21, and had recently seen “Blue Crush”, so of course I decided I was going to try to learn to surf. It was definitely NOT North Shore, Hawaii though. I took my first lesson in January 2004 and finally understood what it was like to be cold, really cold! Despite having to sit in a hot bath for an hour afterwards, I was hooked! I had ridden my first wave (only whitewater, and probably with the instructor hanging off the back of the board) and little did I know at that point, it would change my life forever.

After this, I made a solemn commitment to surf as much as I could for the rest of life (little did I know about the ups and downs of a surfing life!) and I soon realised I would need to change my career plan of working in TV or film (most likely in London or Bristol) to something more accommodating for my burgeoning surf obsession. I managed to get a job at the Boarding House, a surf hostel overlooking the premium surf spot that is Fistral Beach, with a reputation for the best parties and where all the pro’s would stay when they were in town for the Boardmasters competition (a QS event that is now a huge music festival in Watergate Bay). Newquay was the perfect place to begin my surf education, and at the Boarding house I had a whole surf crew, mentors and the chance to watch surf films 24-7. I learnt about longboarding through Thomas Campbell’s Sprout and was mesmerized by the fluidity and gracefulness surfers like Belinda Baggs and Kassia Meador applied to long, peeling waves. These were the kind of waves that I liked the look of - as opposed to the solid barrels and competitive short boarding that was (and still is) hugely popular. During my first winter as a surfer I got a glimpse of the seasonal lifestyle, and the call of the warmer waves further South. With the Boarding House closed over January and February, I hopped in a friends van and a few of us drove to Morocco to sample the reeling pointbreaks and tasty tajines of the North African continent. I was the only beginner surfer in a pack of experienced and professional surfers, but this trip took me out of and beyond my comfort zone; trekking across sand dunes, scaling down cliffs, paddling out at river mouths and coming face to face with Moroccan slabs to find surfable waves. I came back more stoked than ever and decidedly more knowledgable, as well as rather relieved to be back in the friendlier Cornish waters for the Spring and Summer.

Soon I had saved up enough money to take my first trip further afield, and I started planning when and where I would be able to surf my first proper reef break. It wasn’t just a surf trip, it was 6 months backpacking around Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii and California - I feel exhausted just thinking about it! I knew taking a board would be impossible and so instead I just marked a few spots where I could focus on surfing and hire a board there. I surfed a wave pool in Kuala Lumpur, and Australia had some moments of frustration where I could only catch whitewater. But things got interesting when I made it to the surf camp in Fiji ready to jump off the boat and surf Wilke’s passage. I feel pretty darn proud of myself when I think how excited I was to put reef booties on for the first time, sit in the channel and then start to ease my way into the shoulder high right handers, breaking perfectly across the shallow reef not far from Cloudbreak. The last day, the swell picked up and I didn’t have the courage to even get off the boat. But it was a huge lesson in the world of waves - sometimes its just better to stay dry ;)

Despite my sporadic and often unsuccessful surfing attempts abroad, I returned to Cornwall with high hopes to become a surf instructor. I just loved being in the Ocean, and knew if I got the qualification and started teaching, it would bump up my water time significantly - whilst bringing me an income, which is what I needed. Back in 2008 there weren’t many female instructors, in fact I was the only one on the BSA course, and I was the only female instructor when I started teaching at Newquay Surf Academy but I still felt very supported and encouraged by the guys. Despite being fairly new to surfing, I really enjoyed teaching and started picking up more work through surf retreats and weekends for city folk. It just at the point where Roxy started promoting women’s “learn to surf” sessions, so I joined as an ambassador and began traveling to Spain and Ireland to teach. It was this point where I scored my first job as an instructor abroad, so I headed back to Taghazout, Morocco, this time with a brand new longboard shaped by Cornish legend Ben Skinner.

And where was yoga in all of this? Well, it was quietly creeping up on me, gently assisting me in my surf journey through the breathing techniques I was learning and through the strengthening movements that helped my pop up significantly. I had bought a DVD (MTV power yoga!), taken a few classes and would try to copy what I had done on my own, but surfing had always come first. When I got to Surf Maroc I finally had the chance to learn and practice regularly with the two amazing resident yoga teachers. I fell in love with yoga and also felt the mental benefits of the practice. With some heavy life situations happening in these short years, experiencing love and loss on a personal level, I really need to call on it to help me through.

Whilst in Morocco, not only was my surfing improving, but my environmental awareness was growing. It was 2009, and The Surfers Path were still going. I wrote to the Magazine asking if they had any suggestions on what to do about the plastic waste that was washing up on the beaches during the big swells. Yes, there was a waste management issue in the village as we were still drinking water out of plastic bottles, rather than filtered, so there was definitely something us, at the surf camp, could propose to change. Additionally, Surfers Path suggested I join Surfers Against Sewage, and it looked like their remit would soon be shifting towards plastic pollution, as well as waste being dumped into the sea. I started running some local beach cleans and just generally picking up plastic off the beach whenever I could. I didn’t really understand the extent of the problem and only now, nearly 15 years later is it starting to make sense, having taken the time to really dig deep into this topic.

Alongside the impacts of plastic pollution, I started to learn about other human activities ravaging the Ocean and one that I particularly affected by was the hunting and killing of whales and dolphins. This was the year the 2009 film; The Cove was released. And whilst I was horrified by the brutality in that film I was also fired up and hopeful - for it featured a small group of surfers who were (peacefully) trying to create change. I reached out to Surfers for Cetaceans, and joined their protest at the 2010 International Whaling Commission meeting in Agadir (it felt like synchronicity that they would be just 20 minutes away from the surf camp!). It was here I met one of my greatest mentors - Howie Cooke - and had the opportunity to jump aboard a Sea Shepherd ship to investigate the Faroe Islands - another place notorious for killing pilot whales in a “traditional” practice known as the Grindt.

I spent the next few years traveling with the seasons and swells, joining environmental campaigns and also diving deep into yoga. I took my first yoga teacher training in 2011, in Goa, India with Lara Baumman, creator of Quantum Yoga. I had been inspired by a couple of the teachers at Surf Maroc who were teaching her method - fusing strong Ashtanga style sequences with Ayurvedic principles. It was during this trip I first stayed with Ed and Sofie of Soul & Surf, a new guest house in Varkala, Kerala that included a daily surf check (and surf - if there were waves.) I set an intention - if they grew their business and one day needed a yoga teacher, I would come back and teach. I lived entirely out of a bag, moving between jobs, trainings, boats, surf camps, my parents in France and friends places. It was fulfilling but draining. I made so many incredible connections with people and places, but I was struggling to find real direction.

The pinnacle of my activism arrived with a place onboard the Sea Shepherd vessel Sam Simon and I set sail to Antarctica on their Zero Tolerance campaign in the winter of 2012. It was a huge commitment; being at sea for 5 months in the Southern Ocean, searching for the whaling fleet and I was even featured in the Guardian! My role was in the galley, and so not only did I get to witness the pristine environmental conditions and biodiversity in the South Pole, I also became pretty handy in the kitchen (a vegan one). That campaign remains one of the most successful to this day, with 932 whales saved (from the overall Scientific whaling quota). I returned to dry land, and to Europe, to try something new: staying in one spot for a while.

Jersey was meant to be a safe place for me to rest and recuperate - instead it rocked me to my core and made me wake up to something extremely important: that looking after myself was my responsibility - and nobody else’s. It took a couple of years for things to catch up with me, things that perhaps I hadn’t dealt with because I’d been living on the road so much. Once I was settled, with a steady job (running a local surf shop; teaching yoga and surf on the side) and in a new relationship, the cracks started to show. Anyone (and I think it must be everyone) who has gone through mental suffering, knows its very different to dealing with a physical injury, there is so much stigma attached. I began working with a therapist, which also anyone who has worked with a therapist knows, the first couple of years are hard! There was a lot to process. I also ignored the messages that I wasn’t really happy. My mental health eventually took a turn for the worst and everything became clear. I needed to leave the Island, to learn how look after myself and find out what would make my life truly worth living. I already had most of the components, I had already found surfing and yoga, and I felt strongly about protecting marine ecosystems and species… I just need to give myself time to heal and find a place I could actually thrive.

One might say I was running away, but it really felt like I was running towards something. Having come very close to being trapped in a situation that felt out of my control; unable to find the tools to cope with grief, burnout, anxiety and sleep depravation; operating as a strange and unfamiliar version of myself… I longed to reclaim my own identity and rewrite my own story. My breakdown (and break up) suddenly felt like a breakthrough, and I had the chance to start over. But where? And doing what?

I had always wanted to experience the mountains fully and a failed attempt of learning to snowboard meant there was a tiny spark in me, just waiting to be reignited. I was also becoming more susceptible to the cold and after two long UK winters surfing in North Atlantic waters I was looking for another way to get my wave-riding fix. I started applying to jobs in the Alps and a week later was serving Christmas morning breakfasts in a chalet in Val-d'Isère. There’s nothing quite like the feeling that fresh snow brings up - like a fresh start. And this certainly felt like a fresh start, not knowing anyone, being in unfamiliar surroundings and being a beginner again. So much pain! So much to learn! So much to unlearn! But what happened in this short season, is that I rebuilt my life from the inside out. I remembered who I was; someone who needs challenge, who needs to be outside in the elements and who needs to feel purposeful.

And what happened after that? Well, I headed back to India and Sri Lanka, to start working with Soul & Surf (turns out they had become an extremely successful surf retreat in the meantime) - my intention finally came true. I was back on track, traveling again, but this time with a sense of purpose. Not for anything other than the fact that this was my life and I deserved to live it the way I wanted. And although teaching surf and yoga were my passion, there was still something missing - the environmental element. Whilst in New Zealand, I had participated in a Permaculture Design Course, and this process of learning the principles of living in harmony with the Earth had a profound effect on me. I knew I needed to engage my brain and enhance my mental capacity more; I had become so used to overthinking and triggering my own anxiety, what about if I actually channelled it into something really worth worrying about - our ecological and climate crisis. It was time to go back to school! I enrolled onto the Masters of Sustainability at The Eden Project and Anglia Ruskin University, a distance learning course that enabled me to harness all my experiential learning over the last ten years and apply it in the Academic realm.

2018 marked the beginning of “living the dream” - at least for a bit. I also had the bright idea in New Zealand of getting a van, so that I could finally have my stuff, mainly surfboards and wetsuits in one place. The first van I bought died pretty quickly (of rust, the poor old salty seadog) but those few months gave me the chance to get used to the realities of “vanlife” and decide whether to invest in it properly. It was a big YES from me, and thankfully it came it the exact point my dear Dad was retiring as a plumber and no longer needed his Citreon Jumper. A few YouTube tutorials and an old shed later, and I had transformed the van into a cosy chalet on wheels, and for the next three years proceeded to study online, work in the French Alps during winter and travel to Portugal via my parents place (dropping off car with snow tires and picking up aforementioned van) to work in the newly set up Soul & Surf Portugal.

Yes! Soul & Surf had come to Europe and I was extremely happy have been recruited as the resident yoga teacher. The first season was super busy, and I had to juggle teaching, studying, surfing and figuring out this new spot to reside in. Another season in Morzine and we ran Drift Snow (a retreat I had started work with in Jersey), bringing together my love of the mountains, delicious vegetarian food (which is quite hard to find in French ski resorts), yin yoga and hot tubs! Then the unthinkable happened; Covid. The pause button in everyones story. Stuck in France at the bottom of the mountain but with no access to snowboarding as everything was closed, time stopped. I spent hours, days, meditating by the river as Winter turned to Spring. I was finishing my final project for Uni, and unfortunately had to switch from environemtal data to social as all the labs were closed. The previous year I had joined eXXpedition and sailed from Plymouth to Azores collecting microplastic data in the North Atlantic, and this citizen science campaign prompted my own research area to evolve. Instead, the Covid pause allowed me to pivot and shift towards a different angle: Ocean Literacy. As well as join the Groundswell Community Project surf therapy for trauma recovery training.

Luckily, after a short stint picking asparagus to get out the house whilst quarantined with my parents, we were free to travel within Europe again. With Brexit on the horizon and news more waves of Covid (and a desperate need to surf some Ocean waves) I had to get back to where I felt most at home. Which turned out, was SW Portugal. Whether it was timing, or fate (I had visited Lagos with Women for Whales many years before), I felt like this was the spot to start to grow some roots. I took the leap and became a resident. In April 2022, I began my first job as a communications consultant for the ECOP Programme and simultaneously moved into a house near Arrifana. And whilst, I’m sure the story is not over, this is how ECO YOGA SURF came to be, where (and why) you can find me and why these three elements are truly part of my heart, soul and life journey.

“I wouldn't have got to where I am now without the continual and evolving love and support of family, friends and colleagues.  It has not been a solo journey, but a collaboration between many artists and co-creators. Thank you to everyone I’ve crossed paths with for being part of my journey!”

experience

• Consultant for IOC-UNESCO (2022 - present)

• Director of Groundswell England (2020-2022)

• eXXpedition ambassador (2019 - present)

• Yoga teacher and surf coach at Soul & Surf (Portugal, Sri Lanka and India) (2017-22)

• Yoga and surf coordinator at Drift retreats (2018 - present)

• Roxy Fitness ambassador & coordinator of RUNSUPYOGA event, Jersey

• Former Head coach and Senior Surf Manager for Jersey Surf School

• Writer for SurfGirl Magazine

• Galley assistant on Operation Zero Tolerance, Sea Shepherd

• Regional rep for Surfers Against Sewage in the Channel Islands.

• Cofounder of Women for Whales.

• Ambassador for Surfer for Cetaceans

QUALIFICATIONS

• Groundswell Community Project surf therapy for trauma recovery Level 1 & 2 (2021-22)

• Suryalila Yoga Training, Gita module - 150 hours (2020)

• Level 2 ISA surf coach (2018)

• Level 1 ISA surf coach (2008)

• Level 1 ISA SUP instructor (2016)

• RLSS lifeguard certificate (last renewal 2016)

• 100hrs Yin for Vinyasa teachers, Radiantly Alive, Bali (2014)

• 200hrs Yoga Certificate with Quantum Yoga, Goa (2010)

• SUP Yoga instructor certificate, SUPFit UK (2015)

• AIDA Freedive certified level 1

• PADI Open Water

• STCW