The 9 Lives of Pioneering Trailblazer, Lisa Andersen

“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”

― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

The Long Island-born water baby reflects on her youth, her innate fearless nature, and trusting the timing of life.

The Tidalist has been an incredible vessel and gift to my life as it has given me the opportunity to meet some of the most inspiring and remarkable individuals - from artists to designers, professional athletes, activists, and now a personal hero. When I was presented with the honor of interviewing Lisa Andersen, I had no idea where the conversation would end up. Of course, I had questions prepped beforehand, but as the magic of good conversation often does, it became an important one. Something deeper. But I should have known better, after all. True greats are deep, kind, humble, and honest humans and shouldn’t have expected anything less.

Many of us know Lisa as the four-time world surfing champion, a beautiful, blonde, fearless badass. She is credited for revolutionizing professional surfing for men and women and was instrumental in establishing equal pay in a sport that has been predominantly ruled by men. Her achievements are as monumental as it gets and quite honestly more than most of us can accomplish in a lifetime. The best part is that she is nowhere near stopping and at 54, has once again blazed forward as a beacon of the industry. She continues to ride for her longtime partner Roxy (with a new capsule collection out now) and has become a brand ambassador for the super cool eyewear brand, Caddis.

All that to say is that anyone who knows Lisa can attest – her stoic yet fearless nature combined with the variables she overcame makes her a true champion. And as you read, you will see what I mean when I say that there is something extra special about this human. A perfect mix of fearlessness and femininity, Lisa is a champion who is easy to root for. An inspiration.

The Tidalist: Tell us about your upbringing. Where are you from originally?

Lisa Andersen: I was born in Long Island in Amityville at Lindenhurst Hospital, which is now a cuckoo hospital, but I feel like they tore it down recently! My mom's whole family is from Jamaica, Queens. My dad was a merchant marine from Denmark and he came to New York City to become a chef. My grandfather was a taxicab driver in Manhattan. There are a little bit of roots there in New York, definitely.”

The Tidalist: So how did a girl from Amityville, Long Island get into surfing?

Lisa Andersen: It’s funny because from New York, we moved to Virginia and my dad pursued his career opening up restaurants. I don't know why we ended up in Virginia but we lived three hours from Virginia Beach. From pretty much grade school to middle school. It was interesting because when I look back, I tapped into that adventurist part of myself. I just would just go cruise through the woods and do naughty things. I just didn't give a shit about the boundaries were testing. My parents would be working a lot and I had no real laws or rules, but every year we had a summer vacation. We would go to Nags Head and my dad was very into seafood and fishing. So when we would go there we'd spend three or four weeks in Kitty Hawk, but before then, I had never seen a surfer, a boogie boarder, or any kind of surfing or ocean activity. Although I don’t remember a lot, I do remember my parents not being able to get me out of the water. I was a water baby and as a Pisces, that makes sense. But I couldn't stay out of the water. I turned from brunette, white, and pale to tan with blonde hair. I would come back after every summer to school, and I looked totally different.

The Tidalist: I know that you were a single mom while you were competing for the world titles. An accomplishment that is, on its own, remarkable. What was it inside of you that enabled you to juggle being a professional athlete as a single mom?

Lisa Andersen: I guess it's just instinctual. As a mom, I thought “OK this is in my face, I have to deal with it.” As a young person that fled and ran around to survive and thrive alone, I instinctually knew that that's what I had to do in order to get what I wanted. Very goal-orientated. It is the situation that I got myself into and I needed to make it good, but also I'm never going to give up on my dreams. I had to correlate the 2 together and then your instincts just kick in and you go with the flow.

“We would go to Nags Head and my dad was very into seafood and fishing. So when we would go there we’d spend three or four weeks in Kitty Hawk, but before then, I had never seen a surfer, a boogie boarder, or any kind of surfing or ocean activity. Although I don’t remember a lot, I do remember my parents not being able to get me out of the water. I was a water baby and as a Pisces, that makes sense. But I couldn’t stay out of the water. I turned from brunette, white, and pale to tan with blonde hair. I would come back after every summer to school, and I looked totally different.”

From that point on, it became that drive of exploration and being and wanting to see what else is out there. I remember making a PBJ and then following some dried-up creek to see where it would end up. I would get into trouble. Go missing and we'd have the fire department looking for me. I caused some embarrassing moments for my parents, especially because it was a small town and to be in the paper was a big deal

Now that I look back later in life, I feel you start to realize and really wonder who you really are, and at some point, you think to yourself “Why do I do what I do?” You begin to tap into understanding and ask where it all started. Why am I here? Why am I here? Until you finally face the music and something eventually hits you so hard that it either breaks your heart into a million pieces, and you have to start from ground zero and you’re stuck with wanting and having to understand it. I've had success and all these dreams come true, but yeah I’ve also hit the same roadblocks too.

The Tidalist: As we pivot to your career as a professional surfer, what has been the scariest moment that comes to mind?

Lisa Andersen: That would be a near-drowning experience competing. The last time I actually competed, my son at the time was a year old and we were surfing in Tahiti at Teahupoo. People have had their faces ripped off and for the women out there at the time, we weren't experienced to handle those circumstances in that whole arena. We had no experience there and the sport was/is still so new. I remember when we arrived, there was a newly implemented rule by the government that we had to wear helmets because they just had a guy die. This, of course, makes it harder to surf because you're wearing something on your noggin losing equilibrium. So thrown off. Besides all that I was competing and we were surfing a wave of circumstance. A lot of the girls held back a lot or they didn't even want to progress because they didn't want to go to the next round.

The Tidalist: So what did you do?

Lisa Andersen: Well, for me, it’s not in my DNA to back down. I was terrified but I knew that this was my moment. I had no choice. The world is watching, your peers, your sponsors, everyone is, and you have to perform under this pressure. There was no doubt about it though, because I knew I had to go home to my kids with a paycheck. So long story short, I took off on the first wave of a 10-wave set. I didn't have time to wait and I had to beat Layne Beachley.

I air-dropped. Nose first. I went over the falls, over and over and over again and all I remember is waiting for impact. As I’m underwater I felt something hit me and I couldn't come up. My leash was stuck in the reef and I was drowning. I had all the jet skis and all the rescuers in the area that came but couldn't get close enough because the waves kept coming. There was a panic about whether I would be able to get enough air to keep going down. I then remember the jetskier grabbing the back of my jersey. We were still in the impact zone and there was more to come. We got tossed and tossed until I blacked out. I woke up on land with an oxygen mask on. My first words were “Did Keala win?”

“It came full circle for me. I jumped on this boat and felt like I was a kid again. Detaching from the world. It balanced me so much and gave me a new career path.”

The Tidalist: Wow. What happened after that point?

Lisa Andersen: All I wanted to do is get on a plane tonight and go home. So I did. I got on a plane flight that night and all the way back to Florida. That was pretty much it. I said, “I'm done.” That was the gnarliest experience of my life. I went back to try to revisit it to overcome the fear but I realized it isn't worth it anymore. I'm not leaving this behind, but it isn't worth dying over, leaving my kids. It was an epiphany moment. I didn’t know what was ahead and what I was going to do. But I knew that I'm not doing this.

Luckily at that time, Roxy had this really cool marketing idea called Quicksilver Crossing. They had an old Japanese salvage boat that they had leased for several years to circumnavigate the equator in search of new waves. This was totally my thing.

It came full circle for me. I jumped on this boat and felt like I was a kid again. Detaching from the world. It balanced me so much and gave me a new career path.

The Tidalist: So the question is, do you still love surfing?

Lisa Andersen: That's a good question. Because I went through so much. I lived in California for 15 years up until 2020. Surfing was my church, it was my safe zone. It was my escape zone. It was my harmony, peace. When it went to having to do it to survive, I didn’t want to do it. Cold water, circumstances, conditions, and crowds. My back issues started having more occurrences. I felt it early on in my career but I felt like I had to perform at a certain level every time I paddled out because that was what I was known for. I was going through this transition internally of the ego and what people see… all of which led to forgetting what surfing really meant to me. It felt like I was struggling with the breakup of the love of my life. Not really not knowing what to do.

Then COVID happened and it became a doorway to realization. We were all stuck in this. Everyone was in the no-go zone and then all of a sudden a light bulb went off. At that point, I knew I was going back to Florida. It was a $100 round-trip flight with two people on the plane. I eventually said goodbye to California. It was a wake-up call. Within a week I rented an apartment. I bought a used car, started surfing, and reunited with my sanctuary.

The funny thing is surfing is different for me now. It is not my number one priority. It took me a while to let go of that ego coming from a place of performing at a certain level and having to recognize that my body isn't there anymore.

The Tidalist: That actually leads me to the question – If you didn't get into surfing, is there anything else that you are really interested in?

Lisa Andersen: I want to say architecture or something to do with just structures or interior design, maybe along that lines or just something creative. I love writing to like and wrote a lot of poems when I was young. My mom keeps all these things.

The Tidalist: What was it like competing in a sport where you were fighting for equal opportunity?

Lisa Andersen: I remember being a vulnerable young girl on tour in a mainly male-dominated scene with a very envious and jealous female vibe. You're a threat. You are admired by the guys and excluded from the girl group. There was no money in it, but I don't even think I was phased by any of that. I was just on a mission to surf and win and survive. I think that everything else on the side was a very harsh lesson on how to figure out how to combine all that to success.

From the very beginning, until so many years passed, success started to come in. I became pregnant with my daughter, and then that's when the real success happened. Becoming a mother. Everything just kind of went into place and I think it was because there was a human in your life that you needed to take care of. It wasn't about you anymore. I was stressed out about my sponsorship, but Roxy being who they are said, “Okay, we're not gonna give up on you.” I surfed pregnant to six and a half months and competed, kept it secret until there was an event in Australia. I declined to compete and they wanted to know why. I had to tell them.

Tidalist: We are now going to do a quick round of questions… What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Lisa Andersen: Never give up. Obviously, that was in the back of my mind my entire life. It may be a cliche, but true.

The Tidalist: Fill in the blank- To you a big city is…

Lisa Andersen: New York of course.

The Tidalist: What are you most looking forward to in the next three months?

Lisa Andersen: A whole lot of nothing! But I do want to get back into exploration mode

The Tidalist: When you're not outdoors, say it's pouring rain. You are just chilling. What can someone find you doing?

Lisa Andersen: I'm probably just cuddling with my pups. I feel like there's a lot of self-reflection happening now. I needed this time. I think that I've been so good. Giving out so much but I was also detached from my own self. I feel like I need time to be alone. Once you've done so much in your life, you savor this because you feel like you can really relish being alone for a hot second. Everything in its right time.

The Tidalist: Most memorable concert?

Lisa Andersen: INXS. When I was a kid, I was being a little ass, sneaking out of my bedroom window, and riding my bike to the bar here in Florida. I don't know how but they let me in and my friend’s band was doing INXS covers. Later in life when I went to Australia for the first time, I ended up in this tiny bar in Sydney. The next thing I know, INXS comes out and plays. I lost my shit. It was a big part of my surfing drive. The music I would listen to before I would go surfing.

Fast-forward, I was surfing in Florida and got hit by my surfboard. I had to get stitches in my foot and ended up in the hospital in my wetsuit waiting for hours. Suddenly my friend that I was with said he had tickets to INXS that night in Daytona. I got crutches and said, “f it.”

The Tidlist: Favorite movie?

Lisa Andersen: I'm obviously an emotional load of crap so I get into all the hopeless romantic movies and of course, slapstick comedy.

The Tidlist: What is your favorite surf break?

Lisa Andersen: I love Costa Mesa and a little place in Mexico, called Salina Cruz – near the border of El Salvador. It is all sand bottom. Perfect, long ride. Pointbreaks. Just catch a long ride to the short, run back up the beach back to your base camp, grab a beer out of the cooler, chill out, and run back out for another one.

The Tidalist: Tell us about your collaboration with CADDIS. How did it come to be?

Lisa Andersen: Enich, one of the founders, is a good friend who used to work in the surf industry. He worked at Billabong for many years. I hadn’t been in touch with him until about 8 years ago when he called me and asked “do you use readers? We have this concept we're going to start and we thought that we could use some of the surfers at that point in their life when they need these readers. It is a certain demographic, you’re a champion, and you will have the ability to reach people with a good opportunity.” I said, “I'm down. This just totally makes sense.”

I now have this other family that I love so much and it keeps growing. There are more and more people coming in. It reassures me that anything is possible. If this can happen, then other things can happen.

Thank you Lisa. It is an honor.

In 1995, Lisa became the first woman to grace the cover of Surfer Magazine, which also named her one of the "25 Most Influential Surfers of all Time." Sports Illustrated also named her one of the "Top Female Athletes of the 20th Century."

Nowadays, Lisa continues to compete from time to time and remains an icon to everyone who surfs - male or female. She is revered as an inspiration and a pioneer who trail-blazed a path for today's generation of professional women surfers.