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The Welcome back to Surf Splendor. Who among us hasn't fantasized about selling everything, saying goodbye to all the responsibilities and obligations,

relocating to some far away warm island atoll that hosts a variety of warm water hollow waves.

Well, today's guest did just that and has been living it for the past 11 years.

Amy Koch dawns the cover of the new coffee table book, SheSurf,

authored by professional surfer Lauren Hill, whom, by the way, has a relatively new podcast with her partner, Dave Rostovich.

It's called Water People, if you want to go check that out.

But Lauren Hill has spent the past decade exploring and documenting burgeoning surf cultures

around the world through kind of an eco-feminist lens. And so her book, She Surf, it follows a collection

of surfers and stories. Among them, names that you know, like Seven Time World Champs, Stephanie Gilmore,

and others, names that you should know,

like India's first female professional surfer, Ashida Malavira, and Brazilian longboarder Chloe

Coleman. The book Journeys from Tofino to the Seychelles, to Tuscany's coastline, and to the

Maldives and Pea Pass, where today's guest nailed the

cover shot, deep in an overhead barrel, pumping hands-free backside. The image is part of a

sequence, and it was shot by Amy's husband, Richard Koch. The duo runs the surf program

for Loews Resort on the island of Hudher and Fushi.

Today she shares her story about growing up in Southern California, the impetus that inspired

her radical life change, missteps along the way, and what it's like raising a child on the

small, remote island, and how her perspective on goals, expectations,

and desire has shifted.

This is David Scales for Surf Splendor, and I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Amy Koch. Great to connect with you, first of all.

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