Julie Cox is a pas­sion­ate Cal­i­for­nia surfer who lives life to the fullest. Between her many roles as an ath­lete, museum direc­tor, designer, and model, she still man­ages to find bal­ance. And it all begins with her close rela­tion­ship with the ocean and liv­ing her dream.

What was it like grow­ing up in Cal­i­for­nia?
Grow­ing up in Cal­i­for­nia was great. I love this place. I grew up with a lot of oak trees and hills to hike and explore, but within about a 30-minute drive from the north­ern beaches of Mal­ibu. I had the best of both worlds. It’s beau­ti­ful here. I feel lucky.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I think it was about 1990. I was about 10, not really sure when exactly. It was a thruster from the local surf shop called Per­fect Bal­ance. I had saved up my money from allowance and chores and bought it, but it was stolen from my garage a few months later. I was super bummed, but saved up enough to buy another. It wasn’t until I got on long­boards though, that I con­nected with surf­ing. Age 15 or 16, I got an 8’0” Per­fect Bal­ance. That board changed my world.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
White­wa­ter was alright, but it was too tur­bu­lent. But the green water wave was so smooth and “freeeeee” feeling.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young woman?
I looked up to the other girls who did Junior Life­guards with me and who were a lit­tle bit older. They were the ones to drive me to the beach and to get me surf­ing dif­fer­ent boards and in dif­fer­ent situations.

I also admired Lisa Ander­sen from the mag­a­zines. She was so beau­ti­ful and seemed respected in the male-dominated mags. There was also the Fletcher broth­ers and the Hob­good broth­ers. I remem­bered read­ing about those guys. They were more my age.

You seem to have your hand in a lot of things. How do you man­age such a busy life?
I see many of the things that I am doing as amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and expe­ri­ences, so I am thank­ful for the busy life I have right now. I like to feel pro­duc­tive and I guess I am pretty dis­ci­plined on how I man­age my time. Plus, I am just stoked on a lot of things and it is hard to shove them in a box and for­get about them, so I work a lit­tle on all my projects/passions when I can and feel.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out?
That’s a really tough ques­tion. Each stands out and has affected me for a dif­fer­ent rea­son. One may be for a wave, a type of food, a way of life, a crazy expe­ri­ence, suc­cess at a con­test, a strug­gle, or falling in love. Every spot has taught me a les­son and changed me. I could tell a lot of sto­ries from each, but that might take a long time. Most recently though, Biar­ritz has stood out as a life-changing trip because of the dif­fer­ence in cul­ture, the friends I met, and the love I became involved with.

Who/what inspires you?
I am inspired by pas­sion­ate, pos­i­tive peo­ple who take chances to fol­low their dreams and put them­selves out there. Love, music, friends, the weather, ideas, other moti­vated people.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
The great­est thing I’ve learned is that I will always be learning.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
I think things hap­pen for a rea­son so I am meant to learn some les­son instead of beat­ing myself up and regret­ting some­thing. Of course, I would do things dif­fer­ently if I had the knowl­edge I do now, but that is life and you have to let things go and not be too hard on your­self. I never want to be that per­son that regrets that they didn’t do something.

What are you most proud of?
I’m proud of my fam­ily and friends. They are all so amaz­ing and tal­ented, lov­ing, and pos­i­tive; each per­son inspires me and makes me proud. Truly.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing has shaped who I am. It is part of my story. If I were reli­gious, surf­ing would be my reli­gion. If I were a drug addict, surf­ing would be my drug of choice. It has been my teacher, my trainer, my spir­i­tual guide, my enemy, my best friend, my lover, my cre­ation, my liveli­hood, my creativity—you get the picture.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
The things that bring me hap­pi­ness are friends, shar­ing a meal, good con­ver­sa­tions, laugh­ter, adven­tures, love, nature, and sim­ple times.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
There are a lot of indus­try peo­ple and par­tic­u­lar friends of mine who I feel are shap­ing surf­ing in a way: Michael Blum, Kristi Mur­phy, Ash­ley Lloyd, Jen­nifer Smith, Linda Ben­son, Cori Schu­macher, the film­mak­ers, the shop own­ers, the small cloth­ing mak­ers, the crafty board mak­ers, pho­tog­ra­phers, writ­ers, artists, non-profits. There are so many paving the way. It will be fun to see where we go next and who takes us there.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board?
Your favorite surf spot?
9’4” Diamond, 9’2” Emerald, 9’2” Emer­ald EPS foam, 9’0” Sap­phire EPS foam, 7’4” Opal, 6’ Ruby Quad, My favorite board right now is my 9’2” Emer­ald EPS foam. I like its buoy­ancy, respon­sive­ness and shape. Surf spot? Cur­rently I’m surf­ing Ocean­side Har­bor, North Jetty, and Pipes. But in the world, I love Mal­ibu, Leo Car­rillo, Tea Tree a lot. Give me a right-hand point and I’m a happy girl.

What’s your favorite meal?
Fish, rice, salad or veg­gies, bread. Or Sushi. Or Mex­i­can. I’m a food lover.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Junior Boys, Lykke Li, Milosh, Regina Spek­tor, ATB, the Knife, Zee Avi.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I am grate­ful for good parents—a sup­port­ive and lov­ing fam­ily. My health. I’m grate­ful that I dis­cov­ered surf­ing. I am grate­ful I have been able to ful­fill so many of my dreams. I have a good job, a great house, wonderful friends. That I’m not being shot at in some war. I have a lot to be grate­ful for and I appre­ci­ate it every sin­gle day.

What’s next for Julie Cox?
I could be gone tomor­row, so I try to live each day being the best per­son I can be and appre­ci­at­ing and enjoy­ing all that I have in the present. But good times for the future? I’m going to keep hav­ing fun with the Jule Col­lec­tion. I want to play more music. I want to make a movie. I want to do a lot of things: con­tinue surf­ing, trav­el­ing, explor­ing other things like bike rid­ing, hik­ing, grow­ing food, mak­ing my house more sus­tain­able, spend­ing time doing cre­ative things. I’d like to keep teach­ing surf­ing when I can. Love would be good. I tend to have pretty short rela­tion­ships because I love my free­dom, inde­pen­dence and space, but hope­fully I can bal­ance that with some­one some time for a while. Hope­fully, there is plenty of time for it all and for more adven­tures and dis­cov­er­ies in all aspects of life.

Learn more about Julie Cox from her web­site here. Prin­ci­pal pho­tog­ra­phy by Lorene Car­pen­tier. Third image by Diane Sanders, por­trait by Liz Cock­rum.