“Malibu has changed forever.”
An interview with women’s surf pioneer and environmental advocate Kassia Meador from Los Angeles
“Growing up in the hills of Los Angeles, fires were always a huge thing that we were aware of, along with the importance of conserving water. Those two things have been on my mind since I was a kid. But I think the gravity of these fires, the scale of them, and their environmental impact is something that’s hard to comprehend. Malibu, which is 22 miles of coastline, has changed forever, it’ll never be how it was before.”
Kassia Meador has always been one of my favourite surfers – we used to feature her a lot when I edited Cooler Magazine. A deep thinker and a free spirit, she left her main sponsor Roxy 10 years ago to set up her own wetsuit brand Kassia + Surf with the strap: “high vibe: low impact surf gear for mermaids, mermen & aquatic creatures”, which we get into a little below.
After the wildfires hit Los Angeles earlier this year, and specifically Malibu, a place she’s always said shaped her as a surfer, I wanted to check in and see how she was doing. Aside from the wildfires, we talked about the pace of modern life, rediscovering a love of surfing, and how it feels to live in Trump’s America right now. I hope you enjoy our chat.
Hey Kassia, how’s it going? Don’t think we’ve chatted properly since the last Roxy Jam contest in Biarritz in the early 2010s. Those were good times!
I know right? It was a really simple time back then – we’d go surfing and hang out – before social media took over and things started going way too fast.
When did you last surf?
I surfed down at Churches the other day, a really fun wave down south. It felt really cold and super awkward having a wetsuit on after being in Nicaragua, but it felt good to be in again, like it always does.
What were you up to in Nicaragua?
I was there for a few weeks hosting surf retreats. I’ve been on the road a lot lately – I’m super grateful for it and it’s been very exciting – but I’m also about to start scaling everything back, the retreats and the wetsuits as I want to be a little softer with everything and not full throttle the whole time.
I also have lots of friends who can’t get away and travel, so I thought I might do more work locally in LA and California, more community-based activities. I’m opening up to brand collaborations with like-minded people [like Axxe in Japan and the Spanish brand TWO THIRDS, which I love), as that feels like an awesome way forward. Axxe only make custom wetsuits, which is better from an environmental point of view. And it’s more inclusive in terms of sizing because when you’re a small, independent brand it’s hard to stock to all the sizes. It feels like a softer way for the planet and a softer way to be in the world.
You’ve been running your own business and selling wetsuits for 10 years now. What prompted you to want to step back now?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, the pace of life, I was about to announce it but then the wildfires happened.
Yes, I was really sorry to read about the wildfires. How has it been?
I was in Nicaragua at the time. We opened up our house to people who’d been evacuated, and I had a lot of friends who lost their homes. I lost my home in the Topanga wildfire back in 2017.
Growing up in the hills of Los Angeles, fires were always a huge thing that we were aware of, along with the importance of conserving water. I feel like those two things have been on my mind since I was a kid. But I think the gravity of these fires, the scale of them, and their environmental impact is something that’s hard to comprehend. There are just so many layers to it. Malibu, which is 22 miles of coastline, has changed forever, it’ll never be how it was before.
They’re trying to clean everything up now and some of the sorting sites have been located really badly, such as the one at Topanga, so toxic debris has been getting washed into the ocean, especially after the rains came. We’re trying to do a bunch of petitions to raise awareness and protest against that [read more here].
Malibu is where you got into surfing wasn’t it?
I never lived on the beach in Malibu, I grew up in the valley, but that stretch of coastline is so dear to me. It’s the birthplace of surfing, the Gidget movies, Miki Dora, so much of surf culture and especially longboarding grew from there, because of the proximity to Hollywood and the perfection of the waves. It’s such an iconic place in surfing and surf history, with the hills and that whole Santa Monica mountain range, and the Altadena forest, and all these places have been decimated.
Not to mention the animals and environment, the flora and fauna, the watershed… people will rebuild but these things have been damaged beyond our comprehension at the moment.
Some people have said they’re going to move away
Los Angeles is my home. If you’re not from here and you moved here, I can understand it might be easier to leave but for people from Los Angeles and California, this is our home. I’m going to do everything I can to help the rebuild whenever it happens, to help rebuild the ecosystem and support organisations who are planting trees, reseeding those kelp forests that will help sequester a lot of the toxins that have entered the watershed.
At this point, we’re waiting and trying to hope we can clean it up in a smart way, a more environmentally-positive way.
Going back to surfing, the big surf brands aren’t really owned by surfers anymore, they’re owned by holding companies, is that why surfers seem to be more into small brands?
100% yes. There are a lot of changes going on and other brands have filed for chapter 11. It would be a perfect time to launch a brand in a lot of ways. But I didn’t start a brand to then sell it for a bunch of money to a big company. I started it because I chose to leave Roxy and the corporate structure of things. I felt like a lot of the spontaneity and creativity had gone out of the business.
What’s your relationship to surfing now?
Oh, I love surfing more than ever now. Being able to walk away from something and then come back to it at a different time of life, and support people who are getting into it for the first time and having these feelings of joy. When someone does their first nose ride or some other thing they’ve been wanting to do, it’s such a rad vibe and beautiful experience for me. By the end, professional surfing had taken the joy out of it a bit for me, I felt a little stagnant and disenchanted.
I surf with quite a few women who have either picked up or come back to surfing in midlife, which is pretty cool
For sure. I’m often out and there’s more women in the water than men, and that was totally the case where I’ve just been in Nicaragua.
And finally, sorry to ask, but how is the whole living under Trump again thing going?
Just being in America right now is an interesting time. A lot of the systems that haven't been working for a long time are being exploited, and I think it’s a great unravelling time for the US, as the rest of the world are witnessing. It’s devastating to see such a push for rollbacks when it comes to public services and environmental protections, things people have worked so hard on, for such short-sighted gain.
I’m in a place of shock. But everything has an action and a reaction, and the positive point is people are coming together. People are out in the streets, protesting thoughtfully, and seeing how important it is to band together as a society. So, I'm hopeful, because all I can be is hopeful that we can move together in a more conscious way from this point forward.
Kassia is selling her remaining stock at 40% off, visit kassiasurf.com and use the code TRANSFORM
Big thanks to Ez Rivero for the photography that accompanies this piece
This is a great interview with Kassia by Jamie Brisick on the Surfer’s Journal Soundings podcast and Jamie also wrote about losing his home in the wildfires for Huck in 2019.
Other news:
This year’s magnificent Surfers Against Sewage Paddle Protests are taking place on 17th May. Brighton folk see you there!
Also, I wanted to share a fundraiser that I’m involved with for one of my son’s best friends, Harry Clapham, who suffered a serious spinal injury in the school playground last year, weeks before his 14th birthday.
Harry is a really special kid and a proper sea lover, so please donate to help raise funds for his vital physio care here if you can. And if you work for a brand that has any spare product we might be able to auction or raffle off, please drop me a line x