I grew up in El Cajon, 25 miles inland from the coast. Surfing wasn't part of the culture out there. I played basketball, that was my world. The ocean was somewhere we went in the summers, and honestly it was more of a place of fear than anything else. No one in my circle knew how to navigate the water. No coach, no family in the surf community, no real access.

High school changed that. I joined the surf team and for the first time I was around people who genuinely loved it. That community gave me a second chance with the ocean and it hooked me.

What I didn't expect was what surfing would do to me beyond the water. The ocean doesn't care about your problems, your job, or how stressed you are. It demands your full attention or it humbles you fast. That forced presence changed how I move through the world. It built patience, adaptability I didn't know I needed, and a connection to nature that became the anchor for everything else in my life. I studied Psychology at CSU Channel Islands and was introduced to ecopsychology. The idea that nature doesn't just restore us, it transforms us, that's what I was living and wanted my life’s work to be. It's something I've experienced firsthand over nineteen years of surfing.

What I do now is exactly what didn't exist for me growing up. A real system, real feedback, and someone who actually knows the way.