Dropping In to Power: Personal stories of the transformational power of surfing from women of all levels, all ages, all over.

REWIND UPDATE: Just a short 32 months ago (!!!) I interviewed the spectacular ER Doctor, Candice Myhre, who saves surfers and regular humans from death and destruction on the regular. In that episode, she mentioned a book she was planning to write, and now she’s done it! Well, ALMOST done it! Her manuscript for Sex, Surf, Sutures, Scars: A Surf Doctor’s Story of Love and Trauma in the Lineup is in the final editing stages, book proposal is finito, and she has been firing it off to liter...

REWIND TIME! Two and a half years ago, I paddled through an impact zone of technophobia, stagefright, and impostor syndrome to launch an experiment called the Dropping In To Power podcast. My question: Had other women's lives been transformed by surfing like mine had, and did they want to talk about it, and did anyone want to listen? Yes, yes, and yes, it turns out.It also turns out, that transformation is never-ending. I looked at the calendar today, and realized that more than 3 month...

"Auntie Mo" - Maureen McNamara - MaineOn Halloween of 2023, when Surfline shared her (now viral) video, we fell in love with a salty New England surfer hurling clean insults and sage advice to an offending “whippasnappa” in the lineup. “Auntie Mo” barreled into our hearts and has since graced our feeds with her elixir of deep surf knowledge, self-deprecating humor, and truly helpful surf (and life) tips embedded in gentle ribbing. Talking to the "the whole Mo," I discovered that “Aunti...

“Moments before drowning, she became the sea.” - Mermaid’s LamentIn this episode, we temporarily ditch our surfboards and plunge into the raw power of the ocean, its intersection with salvation, and creativity. I talk with the director and stars of Mermaid’s Lament, a film about trauma, grief, resilience, imagination and…mermaids! Shot entirely on the island of Hawaii with a regional cast and crew, director GB Hajim has created, in his words, “a love letter to all people who find peace in the...

Para surfer Victoria Feige, the winningest female adaptive surfer on record, unveils her inner nerd and offers us a breakthrough that will rock your world: a simple, visual explanation of the mechanics of the DUCK DIVE and WAVE MECHANICS. I promise, you will have an AHA moment! At heart, beyond her injury, Victoria is just a girl who LOVES to surf and has thought a LOT about it (and a lot of other things). Our convo touches on how hands make us human, how resilience informs grit, how neurosci...

🏄‍♀️“Surfing well with a smile is the best revenge.” Mindy Pennybacker 🏄‍♀️ Mindy Pennybacker, lifelong soul surfer, author, journalist, and surf columnist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, just released the gorgeous tome, Surfing Sisterhood Hawaii, a history, celebration, and, really, guidebook for how women have ruled and can rule the waves! Her axiom, “Our place is in the waves," leaps off of every page, a celebration of ordinary and extraordinary women surfers with a shared lo...

One of the joys of women flocking to the water is how we are learning to cheer for one another. (I know, some of us, ahem, are still working on this on particular days and in particular conditions.) This is NOT something we are raised with, cheering for other women, especially successful ones. We come up against our own competitive feelings (no one should be smart, pretty AND talented), as well as the constant messaging that women athletes are "less than" by the misogynist (yes, I said it) sp...

“To be in the water like this is to be in movement to a musical note, it is to be one with color while painting, to be with a line while drawing.” From the upcoming, Break.Dr. Stephanie Han, Korean-American author, educator, speaker and self-proclaimed “bad surfer” came to surfing with a dream - to stop the splintering of her family. Instead, the ocean exposed the jagged, reef-like edges, of her marriage, and herself. Though her relationship with water has been complex—the haunting of a child...

Melissa Volker found a way to obsess about surfing in any conditions--by obsessing about writing about surfing! A mid-life blooming writer and water woman from South Africa, Melissa’s delicious fiction blends “surf noir” with “environmental romance suspense.” (Check out the addictive Shadow Flicker!) In our pod, we chat about the coastal topography and bathymetry of South Africa’s breaks (get out your pencils) and she indulges my obsession with South African sharks. (Did you know you can get ...

Lena Siebertz, founder of Cold Water Sirens, not only braves near-freezing conditions, but relishes them. In temps as low as 37F/2.7C, Lena is forging a community of feminist surfers in Northern Germany and Denmark to transform surf culture beyond the old competitive paradigm, using cold water as part of the reset. Lena and I bonded over surfing head injuries earlier this year, sharing our progress as our stitches healed and trauma ebbed. We found the true meaning of community! Lena and her s...