Belinda Baggs

Belinda Baggs is an Aus­tralian surfer who has appeared in many films on wave slid­ing by the likes of both Thomas Camp­bell and Andrew Kid­man. Her sig­na­ture style and cat-like grace on the nose has earned her a place as an icon in the surf­ing world. We spent a few moments chat­ting with the one they call “Bindy.”

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Inno­cent and peace­ful. My fam­ily would spend long days at the beach, surf­ing or swimming—lots of hol­i­days up the east coast of Aus­tralia and gen­er­ally a child­hood full of love and fun times. My fam­ily has always been close, sup­port­ive of what­ever I choose to do. Luck­ily, surf­ing is a shared pas­sion that allowed us to relate to one another. Every day was always some type of adven­ture: search­ing for points or fig­ur­ing out how to get out of school when it was offshore.

When did you get your first surf­board?
My first surf­board was an 80’s thruster. I got it sec­ond­hand when I was about 12. I remem­ber get­ting tossed about in the New­cas­tle shore­break, but occa­sion­ally get­ting that rare day when I would get out the back and Dad would call me into a cou­ple of small waves. They were really the moments that trans­formed my life into one of a surfer. Even­tu­ally, I got a thruster short­board and, finally, a long­board when I was about 15.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I don’t really remem­ber the first wave that I stood up on. Ever since I was a grom­met, I think I have been addicted to the free­dom and glide of rid­ing a wave. I feel like I learn some­thing new almost every ses­sion, as sub­stan­tial or sub­tle it may be; there is always some­thing beyond your exis­tent knowl­edge to dis­cover and absorb. It’s that feel­ing that keeps surf­ing fresh and pure. It can come from pick­ing up dif­fer­ent surf­boards, body­surf­ing… some­times just swim­ming out along the bot­tom and feel­ing the under­cur­rents. It helps us to become a bet­ter surfer and keep the stoke flowing.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young girl?
My father and the peo­ple that were imme­di­ately sur­round­ing me day-to-day. There is always some­one stand­ing out in the crowd, catch­ing, rid­ing and con­nect­ing with the wave more so than any­one else. I wanted be the one get­ting the good waves of that day and feel­ing what they were feeling.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
I have trav­eled to so many amaz­ing parts of the globe. I feel blessed to have seen and expe­ri­enced the things and places I have been. Tai­wan, Papua, New Guinea, New York, Sar­dinia … are all high­lights for one rea­son or another (cul­ture, waves, land­scape, nat­ural beauty). Most recently, I have been spend­ing lots of time in Suma­tra, Indone­sia. It’s all so for­eign to how I grew up and the life I know—everything from the reefs, curve and power of the waves, cur­rents, land­scape, cul­ture and per­cep­tion and direc­tion of liv­ing. Immers­ing myself in this lifestyle has been a huge learn­ing curve for me and I have grown to appre­ci­ate the smaller and sim­pler aspects of life—be less judg­men­tal and more accept­ing of sit­u­a­tions and peo­ple. In the ocean, I have been chal­lenged and, although I know my lim­its, have been able to push myself to become a more rounded on dif­fer­ent equip­ment to adapt to the conditions.

Who/what inspires you?
Peo­ple that live for the moment and fol­low in their dreams till they become a real­ity. Nature and our sur­round­ing envi­ron­ments. Adven­ture and unknown lands.

Tell us about your rela­tion­ship with Patag­o­nia.
I’ve been one of Patagonia’s ocean ambas­sadors for the past four years. The company’s ethics have really ush­ered me to fol­low the adven­tures I dream up. Also edu­cated me on how to live more sim­ply and, from that, con­sume and cre­ate less waste. Be more con­scious of my actions and the effects that I, and we all, have as indi­vid­u­als to this planet. I prod­uct test tech­ni­cal gar­ments and other equip­ment. It’s so great to have an imme­di­ate influ­ence on the prod­ucts pro­duced and truly believe in what they are selling.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Liv­ing for the love of life. Being present in the moment and find­ing bal­ance. That one minute you have the world at your fin­ger­tips and in the next breath it can be gone. Embrac­ing the sit­u­a­tions we are lead into and focus­ing on the good and pos­i­tive. Learn­ing from my mistakes.

What are you most proud of?
My fam­ily and truly close friends that are con­sid­ered as family—the things that they set their mind to and excel.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing, or rid­ing waves on any medium, pretty much is my life. It dic­tates where I will be, when I will be there and, more impor­tantly, gives me a sense of pur­pose and the rea­son that I am who I am. It is my pas­sion; it has been since before I can remem­ber and has always lead me through­out the dif­fer­ent direc­tions that my life has taken. Surf­ing gives me hope through­out the down times, cre­ates dreams, pro­vides adven­ture and is a place that in any soci­ety you can be 100% free. It’s love. It can give that spir­i­tual con­nec­tion with nature, ful­fill that sense of wild­ness, and, on occa­sion, be noth­ing more than pure fun.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Each day brings with it its own oppor­tu­nity for hap­pi­ness. And choos­ing where I place myself or what frame of mind I’m in is up to me. I try and sit­u­ate myself with the things I love most in this life: surf­ing, my fam­ily, friends, alone time, adven­ture, being lost and then find­ing the way, cre­ativ­ity and being sur­rounded by love.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Peo­ple that are in the ocean every­day, liv­ing the life and not just talk­ing about it. Surfers that are insight­ful and try dif­fer­ent equip­ment no mat­ter how off-center it may be. Some peo­ple that have inspired and changed my path in the past few years are The Mal­loy broth­ers, Joel Tudor, Tom Wegener, Derek Hynd, Liz Clarke, Neal Pur­chase Jr.

What is your favorite board?
There is too many good boards in my quiver right now to choose just one—5’6” NPJ stringer­less twin fin, 5’8” FCD Patag­o­nia 2+1 egg and a 9’2” Rev­e­la­tion sin­gle fin log.

Your favorite surf spot?
Mac­a­ro­nis! If I could dream up my “per­fect wave,” it would be exactly down to every last drop of water of this lovely left!

What’s your favorite meal?
Any­thing home-cooked: Ital­ian, Japan­ese, veg­gies, fresh fruit, mint and dark chocolate!

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Avett Broth­ers, Gin Club, Old Crow Med­i­cine Show, Bon Iver, Angus and Julia Stone, John Prine, Brown Birds from Windy Hill, Jes­sica Lee May­field, Iron and Wine, Ryan Adams, Mod­est Mouse, Cat Power, Neil Hal­stead, The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, Mike McCarthy, Okkervil River.

What are you most grate­ful for?
This beau­ti­ful earth, a clean ocean and being lucky enough to share spe­cial friendships.

What’s next for Belinda Baggs?
Lots of water time! The next month in Noosa. Then, a few trips to Suma­tra … and going with wher­ever else the road leads.

All pho­tog­ra­phy pro­vided by Adam Kobayashi. To find out more about Belinda Baggs, check out her Patag­o­nia pro­file here.