How surfing (and Bali) helped Nikki heal

👋 Hey, I’m Nikki

My first surf was on a family vacation to Oahu, where my grandparents were born and raised. My grandpa found an old beach boy friend, and I got my first lesson at 12 years old. I rode a big 10-foot board, got up on waves, and loved it. But it didn’t bite me then—I didn’t get that surfing bug. I never really started surfing consistently until I was about 30.

🚗 4:30am club

My friend and I lived in Studio City in Los Angeles, and we’d drive at 4:30 in the morning—an hour and a half to Huntington Beach. We didn’t know how to read a surf report, so we just went Tuesdays and Thursdays. We’d show up at the beach around 6 AM, surf for an hour or two no matter what, and then get home by 10 AM to start our day.

😅 HB vs Malibu

The HB break wasn’t very crowded. I didn’t experience the intensity of a lineup until we started to surf Malibu First Point—and that was a whole different ball game. It was really intimidating. I would sometimes go out there and just sit in the lineup the whole time and not get any waves. Just kind of… paddle in sad. 😭

Until I started to build up confidence, that is. I would wait for somebody to fall off the wave and I would just get in there when I could. Slowly, it would be like: one wave. Okay—two waves. 😊 You’d start to know the crowd. You knew who not to drop in on. You knew who would let you party wave.

🌊 These days: Encinitas life

I live right now in North County, San Diego—I’m in Encinitas. I typically surf anywhere from Beacons Beach to Cardiff Reef. There are so many breaks in that area. My buddy and I usually do a little surf check in the morning and figure out the best spot, where maybe it’s not too crowded. I travel a lot for surf, but there’s something about home now. Sometimes the waves are just better in San Diego. 🥰

🌀 Forever intermediate

I feel like I’m a perpetual intermediate surfer. I don’t think I will ever be advanced. That’s just that mindset of always wanting to get better. I feel proficient in the water under a lot of different conditions—I know my limits, and I can take care of myself. But there’s still so much I have to learn that I definitely am not advanced. I could get so much better at nose riding, at doing smooth cutbacks. When I’m on a shortboard, duck diving more proficiently would be great, and having better paddle strength. I don’t mind bigger waves, but lower tides when it’s reefy still scare me. And I haven’t been in very many barrels—because I don’t like surfing when the waves are hollow.

🧘‍♀️ From burnout to Bali

I spent no time taking care of my mental body. And at some point in time, I just was not very happy, even though I felt like I should have been. I was seeking so much validation outside of myself—from men, from casting directors, from jobs that I was booking or not booking.

These breadcrumbs started leading me towards meditation and energy work. I challenged what my connection was with God, what I believed in, and started asking deeper questions. That journey led me to Bali, where I did all my yoga training—and eventually to organizing surf retreats. From there, it’s continued to be a huge part of my life.

💫 What a surf retreat really does

If I had to sum up what an experience at a surf retreat is like: it just changes the way that you come back home in your life. Sometimes it shakes you up so much that nothing feels right when you go back home.

You’re like, “Gosh, the people I’m hanging out with aren’t really cheering me on… and the job I have is just sucking the soul out of me and not giving me an actual life of living.”

If you want to learn more, hit me up @nikkinie_nie_ 💌

Listen to Nikki’s entire story below.