Board Women

Bella is a surf photographer, producer, editor, a multi-lane creative who is now most well known for being the first female editor of Wavelength magazine and media entity. Her first issue was in February 2025, six months of hard graft, in particular for someone who hadn’t done the role of editor before. She didn’t let her lack of experience deter her from going in hard on the first issue, and she’s continued in the same vein since.

Supporting women in the surfing space isn’t new to Bella, she saw the issue of a lack of visibility of women at all levels of surfing early on, and she’s sought to re-address the balance through her photography and beyond (and if you take a listen to the interview, there’s a reveal about a big leap she’s made at the magazine which will become public shortly).

We talk about this inequality and much more in the interview:

Bella’s journey into surfing & finding her people
Getting her break into publishing
Burning out & talking openly about mental health
Developing boundaries as a freelance creative
Living an unconventional life and her future plans

Presenter: Caroline Keylock
Producer: Selma Chalabi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We speak to Lindsey Holland, founder of surf lifestyle brand, Marnie Rays.

Do you remember the moment you fell in love with surfing?

Lindsey is an ex dancer, turned physiotherapist, turned part-time fashion influencer, turned full-time (very successful) fashion influencer. And then everything changed on one retreat, a retreat she’d gone on to get over a relationship ending, and a new love emerged: surfing.

I think we all recognise that feeling when we first fall in love with a board sport. It’s genuinely like meeting someone new, you can’t get enough of them, they take up your every thought, you re-organise your life around that new relationship. And so it was for Lindsey as she began to travel around the world to learn to surf in new destinations, bringing her significant instagram audience on the journey with her.

That new feeling of love with the sport ended up being the essence of her business, Marnie Rays, a surf lifestyle brand that hosts retreats all around the world, bringing women on that same journey into the sport (albeit in fairly luxurious surrounds).

We cover:

Lyndsey’s multi-lane career landing in the world of surfing
The founding journey of Marnie Rays
Why surfing is such a release for mid-life women
Moving to cornwall and hosting global retreats
The importance of positive self-talk
Surfing and anxiety and being humbled by the ocean

I hope you enjoy this one! Let me know what you think!

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Producer: Selma Chalabi
Presenter: Caroline Keylock
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve seen a video recently of a woman in her 50’s, 60’s or 70’s cruising the waves and telling the story of how she came to be a surfer later in life, chances are it’s been shared by the Sassy Silver Surfers community, founded by Inessa Love and Lisa Alfano.

Whilst Inessa’s films on instagram show the beautiful waters of Hawaii, she’s actually originally from Ukraine, an unlikely surf girl destination. What feels more unlikely is that she spent 8 years in Hawaii before turning to surfing at 50, an event that came about after she was divorced and seeking new freedoms.

She didn’t find it easy, but she stuck with it, describing it as ‘opening up her life’. She started a facebook group with Lisa, as a way to seek out people who were surfers in the same age bracket, and the two were surprised that it grew at pace. The group is closed, if you’re not 50 you’re not coming in, but the Instagram account @sassysilversurfers has acted as a route for surfers who aspire to be surfing in their 50’s, but who aren’t there quite yet, to find a route into the community.
Inessa is now hell bent on demonstrating that women in their 50’s and beyond an do anything they want, through the lens of the inspiring stories of the women in the community.

We cover:

The story of Sassy Silver Surfers coming to life
Why prioritising yourself is an essential practice
Surfing post Divorce
Why 50+ women are so surfing obsessed
Belonging in the line-up

Producer: Selma Chalabi
Presenter: Caroline Keylock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jo Moseley is that rare breed: a positive menopause story.

The first woman to stand up paddle from coast to coast in the UK, Jo first came on the Board Women podcast two years ago, talking about how this challenge had transformed her life at a time when she needed it most. She described periods of being on the bathroom floor crying, her relationship having ended, and how paddleboarding had brought her joy, challenge and a new found confidence, which she later applied to learning to skateboard in her late 50’s.

Two years later, Jo’s coast to coast challenge has proved instrumental in changing her entire existence. She is now a 3 x author, having released two SUP guides, but more recently launching her book ‘Adventures on The Water: the Power of Paddleboarding to Change Lives’. It’s a collection of stories from people talking about their relationship with Paddleboarding and the water more generally, and it spans from aspirational adventures like Brendon Prince navigating the entire British coastline, to Caz Dawson’s amazon expedition, to Karthy Marston’s SUP yoga classes.

Jo has also released short films, the latest one having debuted at Kendal Mountain Festival, ‘Skinny’ charting her first experience of skinny dipping outdoors, in her sixties.

Whether planned or not, Jo has become the poster child of embracing joy in later life, and a key theme to our conversation is the need for more positive stories of this chapter. The interview covers:

The life changing influence of her adventure
The story behind her new book
Why taking care of yourself in menopause is essential
The need for a more positive view of our next chapter
Why more accessible role models are important
Skinny Dipping in your 60’s (and being on the big screen naked)
Finding freedom in the idea that no-one thinks about you

Jo also talks about two amazing women that we’ve been lucky enough to interview before on the show - Gemma Palmer Dighton, and Sam Metcalfe.

Host: Caroline Keylock
Producer: Selma Chalabi
https://weareboardwomen.substack.com/

Ep 11. Brave enough to take the next step
https://www.jomoseley.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jomoseley/?hl=en

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Founder of the iconic movement, Cheer up Luv, Eliza Hatch is a force to be reckoned with. She’s an award winning feminist, photographer, educator, speaker and curator. She’s spent the last 8 years working to highlight the voices of sexual assault survivors, break down taboos around sexual assault and drive awareness of misogyny in society.

However, more recently Eliza has become known for covering her own journey into the world of skateboarding, and translating some of that analysis of gender barriers to this new space. I’ve really enjoyed following her content about visiting new parks for the first time, and highlighting some of the internal narrative we all have that can, at times, get in our way.

What I didn’t know was that there had been a blip in Eliza’s journey. She had been called out by someone who was a well known male figure in the skateboarding scene, who stitched one of her social films, and eviscerated her in the process. The content went viral, but not only did it affect her in the online space, it started to creep into the real world.

It resulted in Eliza beginning to question whether she should create this type of content at all. In some ways it positively reframed her relationship with the sport, and rather than professionalising her journey, running events and creating content, she embraced the pure joy of the journey. However, it’s clear the impact is still relatively raw, and it’s frustrating that anyone has to deal with this kind of harassment online.

We cover this (the first time she’s spoken about it online) and so much more:

Her journey into skateboarding (and more recently surfing)
Finding a more mindful relationship with skateboarding
The journey of building Cheer Up Luv
Photographic Essays with collective Transkaters London
Developing positive self talk and your own journey of progression

Eliza is super self deprecating, but I really recommend her skateboarding content when it does appear, it’s doing a great job of breaking down barriers in this space. Her social accounts are below if you want to find out more

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Host: Caroline Keylock
Producer: Selma Chalabi

https://weareboardwomen.substack.com

https://www.instagram.com/elizahatch/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/cheerupluv/?hl=en

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.