Prue Jeffries

Prue Jef­fries is a tal­ented Cal­i­for­nia surfer born and raised in Aus­tralia. She recently appeared in a film about the his­tory of women’s surfing, Dear and Yon­der. For­merly a com­pet­i­tive surfer, Prue now spends her time surf­ing for the sheer plea­sure of it and prac­tic­ing holis­tic heal­ing for oth­ers. We spoke with Prue to learn more.

What was your life like as a young child?
I grew up in Syd­ney, and my child­hood revolved around being around the beach and being in the water all day. I started surf­ing because of my dad. I spent a lot of time surf­ing with him and a lot of the boys in the neigh­bor­hood. I had two broth­ers and a lot of uncles who were always doing some­thing, so I grew up with a lot of activ­ity. When I was young, I also tended to ask a lot of ques­tions. Not all of them were answered to my sat­is­fac­tion back then. I imag­ine it prob­a­bly wasn’t very easy on the adults!

Do you remem­ber the first time you stood up on a surf­board?
Yeah. It’s funny because my mid­dle brother and I would egg each other on when we were lit­tle. He used to surf and I was body board­ing at the time. I used to watch him. I didn’t want to do just the white­wa­ter thing. I remem­ber stand­ing up and rid­ing the green face and that feel­ing in my stom­ach like I was going down a big hill. My heart was in my mouth, but­ter­flies in my tummy and in awe of how beau­ti­ful water is as it moves.

Tell us about your first board.
It wasn’t mine, but a com­mu­nity board! In Aus­tralia, they have these foam boards called “foamies” and that’s what you learn on. Even­tu­ally, I pro­gressed to a fiber­glass board. It was a board I bor­rowed from my uncle, a red sin­gle fin. It was my first real board that I learned to surf on.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young girl?
I was odd in the sense I didn’t really look up to any­body. How­ever, there were cer­tain qual­i­ties I admired in people—people who were more gen­er­ous in nature, quiet, kind. When it came to surfers I could look to, it would be peo­ple like Tom Cur­ren …those who were a bit quiet and hum­ble with their abil­i­ties. I also read books by Krish­na­murti and had admi­ra­tion for those types of people.

You have a deep inter­est in spir­i­tu­al­ity. Can you tell us more?
I remem­ber being a small girl won­der­ing, “Why am I here?” It was a very sig­nif­i­cant ques­tion for some­one being of a young age. I still don’t have that expla­na­tion. (Laughs) I don’t need to any­more, and I that is a big dif­fer­ence. It is some­thing innate I was born with. Dif­fer­ent things in my life have made me aware of how impor­tant that is for me. I spent time in the library read­ing books writ­ten by the Dalai Lama or those kind of subjects.

Even while I was com­pet­ing, I was read­ing things like the Tao Te Ching. I had a lot of con­flict about my spir­i­tu­al­ity and com­pet­ing. For ten years, I sim­ply could not put the two together. There was a lot I learned about being human and being in the world. When I stopped com­pet­ing, I was really happy. Finally, I didn’t have to be some­one other than what I already am.

Tell us about your other inter­ests
I’ve been work­ing on some­thing for the past cou­ple of years. It is a heal­ing art called Bel­li­Way. And I love it more than surf­ing. (Laughs) I was look­ing for some­thing that can make me as happy as surf­ing. It’s about help­ing other peo­ple. I’ve had a lot of peo­ple put a lot of energy into help­ing me and my career. I never for­got that and it had quite an impact on me and my life. Now I can give back. It’s like surf­ing because every per­son who walks in the door is different—just like every wave. You never know what is going to happen.

What is it about surf­ing that you are drawn to?
Before surf­ing, I was a high-strung per­son and I needed an out­let. Surf­ing def­i­nitely pro­vided that for me. Now that I am away from com­pet­ing, when I do go in the water it is to con­nect and enjoy what the ocean is. All that stuff about com­pet­ing has just fallen away. Before, I couldn’t imag­ine why peo­ple would just sit in the water and social­ize. I would think, “What are these peo­ple doing?” Now, it is okay for me to just go out and enjoy it with friends. It really helps me to be in the moment and not really think about much.

Tell us about your expe­ri­ence being a part of the Dear & Yon­der film.
I wasn’t really think­ing about surf­ing much when Thomas (Camp­bell) called me. We had a long con­ver­sa­tion about it and I was like. “Yeah! That’s cool!” Then I didn’t hear from him in a few months. Finally, Thomas and his wife, Tiffany, invited me to be a part of the film and wanted me to come down  to shoot at Salu­dita, Mex­ico. It was funny because the break they wanted to film at, I had already gone down there pre­vi­ously with Linda Ben­son and some friends a lit­tle ear­lier. It was a real sur­prise as I have not been involved in the surf­ing indus­try for a cou­ple of years. I was real thank­ful for the oppor­tu­nity. The whole crew was so chill; it was a really laid back expe­ri­ence, prob­a­bly one of the most pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences I have had in my career.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing is a source of peace for me. It was orig­i­nally a phys­i­cal out­let, as I had an abun­dance of energy that needed chan­nel­ing.  It has changed my life as I trav­eled so exten­sively, through surf­ing, that I have had expe­ri­ences and con­nec­tions with so many diverse and dif­fer­ent peo­ple. It has shaped where I am now and who I have become in a very broad way.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I would say any­one that surfs and is happy to be exactly who they are.

Who or what inspires you?
Peo­ple that are fear­less with their search of truth.
What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Feel­ing love in my heart. See­ing chil­dren play.

What are you rid­ing these days and what is your favorite surf spot?
My quiver con­sists of mainly fishes these days. My favorite is my Don­ald Takayama 5’4” quad with Halo fins. He calls it the Huma Huma Nuku A Pua’a. Every time he makes me a new board, it goes just a lit­tle bit faster. (Laughs) I like the glide and speed. There is an effort­less­ness to the fish that I quite like.

I live in Encini­tas, so I am always at Pipes. If I had a choice to go travel again, I would prob­a­bly go to Pasta Point in the Mal­dives or the beach breaks in Hossegor, France.

What is your favorite meal?
The thing I do get crav­ings for is Viet­namese veg­e­tar­ian pho. Any­thing veg­e­tar­ian – tofu, broc­coli. And, of course, chocolate.

What kind of music do you lis­ten to?
I have been on a clas­si­cal bend for a cou­ple months—Vivaldi and some Puc­cini. When I was younger, I lis­tened to a lot of heavy metal. But these days, I can­not bear it any more. I don’t mind some upbeat music here and there, like jazz, but basi­cally if I had a pref­er­ence, it would be clas­si­cal. (Laughs)

What are you most grate­ful for?
Life, the abil­ity to love and the peo­ple to love too.

What’s next for Prue Jef­fries?
Con­tinue to develop our Bel­li­Way. I’ll be focused on get­ting that up and going!

Find out more about Prue Jef­fries and Bel­li­Way here and here.
Pho­tographs of Prue Jef­fries cour­tesy of Tiffany Camp­bell.