Written by Wendy Altschuler
The word on the street is that Jeppi, a former longboard surfing champion, was missing a toe due to a grisly bike accident and that his toe was left split open to the bone until a hotel guest at Las Flores Resort, who happened to be a doctor, offered to fix it. This toeless man, with a corpulent Buddha belly, a smoking habit and kind eyes taught me how to surf in El Salvador.
“Get up!” he’d yell. “Get up, NOW!”
I first read about surfing in El Salvador and the owner of SwellWomen, Lulu Agan, in a women’s adventure magazine and I was completely enamored and inspired. Here’s a woman who has made a career out of travelling the globe to host women-only surfing retreats with the purpose of helping women cultivate confidence and strength through a new sport and also – perhaps more importantly – through bonding with other women. Imagine a utopia-like world where women from diverse backgrounds—of any age, weight, race, or creed—can come together to share their stories of adventure, happiness, pain and triumph and then walk away feeling like they’ve been heard, understood and accepted. This is the magic of SwellWomen.
