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.