Women of water: meet Peggy
In this week’s Women of Water, we chat with Peggy about where following the tides can really take you. From finding the courage to be a beginner to building a deeper relationship with the ocean.
Peggy shares the words she wishes she’d heard in the early days of her surfing journey, encouragement for anyone finding their way in the water or wanting the courage to try something new!
Read the super inspiring, full conversation below.
What first ignited your love for the ocean?
“It started when I was very young, on holiday in Italy. My dad taught me to swim and would make me swim out to the rocks in the Adriatic. I grew up in Alsace, a completely landlocked part of France, so I never imagined I would one day live by the ocean in Cornwall.
There was always something about the water that pulled me in, even before I understood why.”
How has your love of the ocean shaped your life and brought you to where you are now?
“Life took me from Alsace to Paris and then, after I graduated from international business school, to the UK for my first job in Milton Keynes—another very landlocked place. But I kept finding my way back to the water.
I ran around the lakes in Milton Keynes, discovered wakeboarding on the Côte d’Azur and persuaded my parents to retire on the Atlantic coast in La Baule.
During Covid, I bought a SUP and became slightly obsessed. I went out every day, often with the dogs, and entered a paddle race in Pornichet for three consecutive years, progressing from third place to second and finally to the top of the podium. During that final year of SUP, I found my way to Cornwall and into surfing, almost by accident.
Surfing had never been on my radar. I knew nothing about it, yet the moment I stood on a board, it changed my life. I remember thinking, How have I missed this my whole life? By then, I was 44.”
What is it about surfing that has kept you hooked?
“Part of me felt I had a lifetime of surfing to catch up on. Surfing gives me safety, freedom and presence. It has helped me process difficult experiences, discover a quieter kind of happiness and reconnect with who I really am.
Because I found it later in life, I committed myself fully to learning, through harsh winters, tiny waves, early mornings, travel and constant practice.
Surfing has taken me to Costa Rica, the Philippines, Indonesia and France, but its greatest journey has been internal. It has changed how I see myself and taught me to keep beginning again.”
What has learning to surf taught you?
“Presence. Patience. And respect for the process.
Surfing is a lifelong project. The deeper you go, the more you realise how many elements must come together: the ocean, tides, wind, swell, reading, technique, timing, confidence and instinct.
It has taught me bravery, resilience, commitment and belief, but above all, humility. However experienced you become, the ocean will always be bigger than you.
It has also taught me to respect small victories: a better paddle, a cleaner take-off or a wave I would previously have been too nervous to attempt. Progress is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is simply the decision to keep showing up.”
How do you juggle life’s busyness while keeping up with surfing?
“I live by first light, last light and the tides. Everything else is organised around them. That does not mean work comes second. Quite the opposite: surfing helps me perform better. It keeps me alert and agile and gives me the clarity of thought I need for my job.
When there is swell, I try to get in every day. Of course, sometimes work, life or the conditions get in the way, and surfing teaches you to accept that too. You cannot force the ocean to provide the session you want, just as you cannot force every part of life to happen according to plan.
On those days, I turn to things that complement surfing: sauna and cold dips, yoga on the sand, swimming, pop-up practice on land or simply watching the ocean. Even observing the sea teaches you something. You begin to understand its patterns and moods.
Being close to the ocean is incredibly calming and grounding, even when I am not in the water.”
What would you say to anyone looking to start something new, like surfing?
“Commit to it! Not because you have to be brilliant, but because you need to give yourself enough time to experience what it can offer. Do not compare your beginning with somebody else’s middle. Surfing takes effort, patience, acceptance and humility, and progress is rarely linear.
Keep returning, find people who encourage you, learn how to stay safe and respect the ocean and local environment. Allow yourself to enjoy it without turning every session into a performance. Sometimes the greatest achievement is simply getting into the water.
If you stay with it, surfing becomes a relationship rather than an activity. You cannot rush your relationship with the ocean; you have to spend time in it, learn from it, respect it and allow yourself to be a beginner. Eventually, in its own way, the ocean starts to accept you.”
You can follow Peggy’s work at Ocean Flow Yoga cornwall.
Peggy wears the Eco Crinkle One Piece in Terracotta on her latest surf adventure in the south of France, pictured below.
