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

Are you ready to become your most confident, fluid, in-tune surfer? Go to 5:19 for a Surf Hypnosis Meditation - BUT NOT WHILE DRIVING! And now, a brief farewell, dear friends. I began these conversations three years ago with women surfers to find out if surfing had transformed them as profoundly as it had me. Check! It has been such a gift to interview dozens of ROCKING women, and be moved, and li...

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 i...

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 tr...

"Auntie Mo"   - Maureen McNamara - Maine On 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 s...

“Moments before drowning, she became the sea.” - Mermaid’s Lament In 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 cr...

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 othe...

🏄‍♀️“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...

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...

“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...

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...

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 progres...

“If I didn’t have this fear, what could be better?” Jade Chang Sheppard has made it her mission to inspire women to ask and answer that question. On the surface, she seems to have fear *licked*. She built her own fortune in her 20s, birthed 3 gorgeous kids, had a successful marriage *and* divorce. She redesigned her life during a “mid-life awakening,” to include traveling the world to learn to sur...

Are you a tasty treat for a shark during your period? Finally an answer to the question that plagues every woman surfer, at least once a month! Lifeguard Jessie Kilgour has a pretty strong take on the subject, but you’ll have to get to the end to find out. You’ll want to, though, as Jessie brings a fresh take on everything from where she surfs, to what she surfs, and how she lives her life around...

What a start to Season 2! I had a serious surf accident last week with a major head trauma - so I thought, why not do a mini-podcast with a concussion!? This is a little "bonus episode" of me sharing the blow-by-blow of what happened, and the epiphany I had on the other side of the miracle. Coming soon: I have four *amazing* women lined up for podcasts that will be dropping over the next...

Junko Yamasaki went on holiday to Australia from her native Japan at 20 years old, and never looked back. Breaking away from her culture’s traditional expectations, she trailblazed a life fueled by curiosity, compassion and courage. Over her 52 years, she has embodied many aspects of both personal and professional womanhood - daughter, sister, wife, step-mother, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, aun...

Starting at 43 in Boston (!!!), Surfer Stacey Mac rocketed into a pro career as a SUP surfer, defining diehard as she chased hurricanes across state lines to hone her skills. A natural adrenaline junkie, Stacey funneled her focus into her newfound passion, creating a career as a competitor, judge and instructor and moving full time to Costa Rica. But there was a shadow side to her success. In this...

Jenni had become expert at many sports, vocations, missions, but, at 55, living in Hawai’i, she was still ruled by an old story of “I can’t surf, I’m too old to learn, it’s never going to happen.” When Covid hit, she found herself surrendered to the call she had been hearing her whole life, breaking through the fear and doubt, and committing. And did she ever commit! Following a surf epiphany, she...

Elizabeth has overcome so many obstacles on her shero’s journey to becoming the Curvy Surfer Girl - a harrowing childhood, very real near drowning, a landlocked life, and zero representation of surfers who look like her. She has not only returned from her ordeal with shining success, but she has brought back an elixir--her gift of inspiring and uplifting women!  In this interview, she gets absolut...

McKenzie Clark is a self-made waterwoman who headed to Kona on her own at the tender age of 18--with a mission. Her life since has been a testimonial of courage, adventure, humility, and badassery. From solo adventures around the world with a backpack and a Lonely Planet book, to surviving a shark attack, to getting her captain’s license in her 40s, Mckenzie has consistently modeled a life unconst...

Surfer moms—current and future—this podcast is for you! My guest is a newly minted mama fitness trainer, and the founder of Santa Cruz's chapter of Join Surfing Moms, a non-profit that helps moms get their much-needed waves. Sara's story is so important for moms to hear! She grew up surfing, but even with all that experience, she lost her confidence once adulthood, and, especially, mothe...

Gabi Del Rosario entered the sea in a shroud of grief and emerged like the proverbial butterfly from her chrysalis! This Manila city girl unexpectedly found herself in Covid lockdown on the Philippine coast, where everything about her life transformed. At first, surfing was not even in her consciousness, but the sudden death of her father drew her into the ocean, and ultimately, the waves. She cau...

After 13 years, Regina left the surfer's paradise she had created in the mythical blue waters of Kona to answer another kind of deep blue call—becoming a police officer!  In her 40s! On the mainland! In a city! This courageous life choice required her stepping away from the relationship she had cultivated with the water as a surfer, free diver and paddler. Oh, and girrllll, speaking of relati...

“If you drop in with a full heart, you are going to get in return something bigger, stronger, and better than you could ever imagine.”  Ivana Bajic’s gorgeous interactive multi-media project, Nature of Surf Women, is a real-time testament to her credo, and documentary evidence of the transformational power of surf.  Ivana grew up as a girl in Serbia, connected to the magic of nature and water. Aft...

It’s never EVER too late, and never EVER not possible! Meet Jeanne Fernandez-McShane, who at 67, has just started her surfing journey, and she is fierce! She is such an incredibly accomplished woman, you will want to just vibe on her grit! Jeanne’s story is a little different - rather than her whole life transforming from surfing, she brings her life’s wisdom and own transformation TO surfing. Jea...

My guest this week is the phenomenal Kris Primacio, co-founder and CEO of the International Surf Therapy Organization (ISTO, https://intlsurftherapy.org/) Kris started surfing at 41 ,and in 10 short years metamorphosed her life into a sea-salty dream she never even knew she had. She starts her days frothing in the lineup, then peels off her wetsuit and brings that stoke to programs that heal and u...