Hey, I'm Maddi
Twenty-six, from the States, and I haven't really stopped since I was eighteen.
I left home with a board bag, a backpack and about enough money for a one-way ticket. Since then I've pulled beers in Byron, taught surf lessons in Costa Rica, picked fruit in New Zealand and slept in more vans than I can count — all of it in service of getting to the next stretch of coastline.
Somewhere along the way the trip changed shape. You can't spend eight years in the water without noticing what's happening to it: the bleached reefs, the bottle caps in the line-up, the beaches that used to be twice as wide. So these days the surfing is still the point, but it isn't the whole point.
I'm putting my energy into ocean conservation — beach clean-ups, reef restoration, plastic-free travel, and telling the stories of the people already doing this work in the places I pass through. This is where I keep track of it all.
From the road
Journal
Half travel diary, half field notes. Updated whenever there's signal.
Moving pictures
Films
Longer stories that don't fit in words — and the odd two-minute clip from the water.
The good stuff
Album
Places, people and the odd perfect wave.
Say hi
Come along for the ride
Clean-up crews, collaborations, or just a heads-up that it's firing somewhere — I'd love to hear from you.