Liz grew up in San Diego. She learned to sail at a young age with her family on a nine-foot Sabot. When she was ten she experienced a 5,000 mile cruise throughout Mexico. This is when Liz learned to navigate the seas and fell in love with the freedom and independence of traveling by sailboat. Growing up in San Diego also inspired Liz's love of surfing and she quickly realized the potential of surf exploration by boat.

Liz went on to study Environmental Science at UCSB, while living on her sailboat in the Santa Barbara Harbor. She spent several years working on her boat and taking trips to the Channel Islands and to Hollister Ranch. She began to use her sailboat as a means of surf exploration.

Liz's passion for the ocean and her natural athletic ability have led her to become a fascinating surfer. She remembers her first wave riding experience at the age of fourteen. From then on, all she thought about was surfing and was determined to become a great surfer. Her abilities led her to become a successful competitive surfer for the UCSB surf team and in private surf contests. Her win at the NSSA Nationals in 2002, gave her the College Women's National Champion title.

Although Liz excelled in competitive surfing; her passion for surf travel soon washed-out her desire to compete. She began traveling to surf destinations such as Australia, Barbados, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hawaii, Mexico and Nicaragua. It was on these trips that Liz developed her fascination with how other people live around the world and combined with her love for surfing, traveling and sailing, she set off on Swell (her 40 foot sailboat) around the world.

A quick catch up:

If you haven't read any of Liz's blogs before, you should know that she is a great writer and her stories are always worth the read. To fill you in, she left Santa Barbara a couple years ago and has traveled down the Pacific coasts of Mexico to Central America, over to the Galapagos Islands and across the South Pacific. Unfortunately CALIVIDA does not have records of her past blogs but we will keep you up to date from now on.