Captain Liz Clark is a sailor, surfer, environmentalist, and writer. Liz recently wrote her book, Swell: A Sailing Surfer’s Voyage of Awakening, detailing her adventures over 10 years and 20,000 miles on her 40-foot sailboat Swell. Liz set sail from Santa Barbara in 2005 and embarked into the unknown in search of surf and self, traveling all the way down through Mexico, Central America, the Galapagos, and eventually over to French Polynesia.

In this season finale episode, we chat about how Liz has helped pioneer representation for women in the surf and sailing spaces. As such, we discuss how she's navigated certain things like loneliness, self-doubt, and uncertainty, and how women’s sailing and surfing have evolved over the years. As a surf ambassador for Patagonia with a degree in Environmental Sciences from UC Santa Barbara, we discuss how her outlook on the climate crisis has evolved and what she's up to now in Tahiti. We dig deep into various topics and especially her thoughts revolving around her spirituality and what it means to her.

I hope this episode helps inspire you to continue to follow your dreams and passions.

#thesaltwaterstories #lizclark #sailing #surfing #solosailing #climatecrisis #dreams #passions #representation #ocean #womensurfing #swell

Melissa Morrison is the founder of Bitches 'n Barrels, a non-profit organization based in the frigid waters off Vancouver Island dedicated to getting women out surfing...so really it's nice gals and small waves. In a sport heavily male-dominated, it's so refreshing to see someone like Melissa creating a safe space for women to enjoy, play, and feel empowered in the ocean at various levels in their surfing journeys. BnB is helping turn the tide by changing the look, but more importantly, the energy of surf lineups one woman at a time.

Tune into Melissa's full story and our talk about the reality of the lack of representation of women in the water and beyond.

#surfing #bitchesnbarrels #thesaltwaterstories #surf #ocean #barrel #empower #representation #womensurfing #womensupportingwomen

Attila Tota at 67 years old has surfed for over 5 decades of his life. 5 years ago he lost his right arm in a battle

#thesaltwaterstories #saltwater #ocean #adaptive #adaptivesurfing #surfing #surf #boystomen #100wavechallenge #sanctuary #gratitude

What's seaweed farming? What is aquaculture? And why should we care? Karlotta Rieve, project manager at HATCH Blue Innovations, talks about the globalization of seaweed farming and why it has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry over the last 50 years.

Having spent the summer of 2022 traveling to rural parts of Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia surveying seaweed farmers and researchers, Karlotta speaks to her experience, what she learned, and what she is currently doing in her role.

#seaweed #seaweedfarming #ocean #aquaculture #sustainable #climatechange #climate #thesaltwaterstories #saltwater #fishing

Meet Hu, a worldwide chef from Hamburg, Germany with over a decade of experience, including years as a chef on various super yachts traveling the globe. Hu isn’t just a chef though, he is also a spear fisherman, free diver, and now a business owner of SushibyHu. Combining all of his passions, SushibyHu is a pop-up sushi event business, with sustainability at the forefront to curate a memorable dining experience. 

This episode felt like another galley chat with an old friend and coworker. Huey and I dive into various topics like the dark side of yachting in regard to the mental health of crew members, the aggressive and patronizing culture of working in a kitchen, how creativity is fueled by rest, how adversity and hardship open up for opportunity and growth, his commitment to sustainability with SushibyHu, and so much more. 

https://www.sushibyhu.fish/

After quitting her corporate job to work trade in Nicaragua as a yoga instructor at a surf and yoga retreat center, Carly Lutz seeks to create a fluid life. A life shaped by the desire to move freely through the world and centered around the ocean and the things she loves to do in it.

We chat about the long and challenging journey of learning to surf as an adult, her empowering embodiment through her previous travels to Central America, reciprocity in surf travel by making meaningful connections in the communities we visit, and the groundlessness of embarking into the unknown.

Craig Jenkins is the President of the Board of Directors for Urban Surf 4 Kids. Urban Surf 4 Kids is a non-profit organization that provides opportunities for healing and empowerment through surf therapy mentorship and life skills achievement programs for youth in foster and at-risk communities. For youth that have had some pretty heavy and hard experiences in life, there’s not always the means or finances to allow the opportunity to find water or surf therapy. In many ways, Craig is helping bring access to the ocean for youth that could truly use its healing effects. Learning to surf can be incredibly challenging yet an empowering experience that can set up youth to feel like they are capable of facing fears and achieving the unthinkable. I can only imagine the cascade of positive effects this could have on each child that goes through this program.

We discuss Craig’s experience running Urban Surf 4 Kids for 5 years and how he essentially established what it is today, all while having a full-time job as a Marine Interdiction Agent with US Customs and Border Protection for Air & Marine Operations. Craig has won countless awards for his valor and ability to respond in highly intensive situations in his job. We get into some of these stories, which are quite intense and very action-packed. At one point, we both get choked up as he shared a story in which an experience he had with one of the kids highlighted the gravity of the rippling impact a program such as Urban Surf 4 Kids has in the world.

If you are in San Diego and want to be a volunteer or if you are anywhere else in the saltwater world and would like to donate, please see the episode notes for a link to the organization. 

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https://urbansurf4kids.org/

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First Beach Video: https://youtu.be/Jyhg1mNpeUs

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 Follow me on: www.instagram.com/thesaltwaterstories 

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#thesaltwaterstories #surf #surfstories #fear #urbansurf4kids #access #sea #ocean #foster #youth 

Brisa Hennessy is a professional surfer on the WSL World Tour. Brisa is a 2x ISA Gold Medalist, 2019 Pan American Games Gold Medalist, she represented Costa Rica in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan placing 5th overall and she won 1st place in the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach. Brisa is truly one of the most humble and kind surfers I know, with a brilliantly unique saltwater story. Growing up in the jungles of Costa Rica, she disconnected by reconnecting with nature all around her during her formative years. She eventually moved to the North Shore of Oahu for her school years, spending summers in Fiji and finally finding herself in Fiji during the pandemic with her family. During our chat, we talk about her experience with performance pressure, nerves, and expectations as a professional surfer and the challenge of turning off the switch from work to play in the water. We talk about some of her hardest competitions to date and one of her greatest moments of fear in the water. Touching at length on the power of the mind and breath, we dig into the importance of the mental side of competitive surfing. 

https://brisahennessy.com/ 

Follow me on: www.instagram.com/thesaltwaterstories 

#thesaltwaterstories #surf #yoga #surfstories #fear #professionalsurfing #fiji #sea #ocean #prosurfing #brisahennessy 

John McCullough is an up-and-coming shaper and the owner of Monarch Surf Boards based in San Diego, California. We discuss how John got started with it all, and how his shaping was mentored by various people and jobs around the world. In many ways, he has pieced together knowledge from some great folks, both obscure and household names like Joe Roper and Sharpeye, to eventually become the shaper he is now. We go on to chat about how he dials in creating custom-made boards that uniquely allow surfers to connect with the flow of the waves.

Born and raised in New York, then spending some summers in New Zealand, to eventually residing in California as a full-time accountant and Monarch Surf owner and shaper, John's story speaks of the unique path he has taken to get to where he is today. I'm excited to see where his shaping takes him next.

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Captain Natalie Small is a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder and CEO of Groundswell Community Project. The Groundswell Community Project is a non-profit organization providing research-based surf therapy to self-identifying women to support healing from various forms of trauma and its mental health effects. We explore how grief and trauma are held in the body, how movement, specifically in the water through surfing, helps move through held trauma in the body, and the importance of community in dissipating feelings of isolation in that healing process. Finally, we touch on Natalie’s personal story as a sailor, surfer, water woman, and more.

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https://www.groundswellcommunity.org

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#thesaltwaterstories #surf #yoga #saltwaterculture #surfstories #community #groundswell #sailing #trauma #surftherapy #therapy #healing #movement #groundswell