Jessa Williams is the founder of Intrsxtn Surf, a Los Angeles-based surf collective dedicated to empowering Black women and women of color through surfing. After discovering the ocean as a space for healing and self-discovery, she launched Intrsxtn just one year after learning to surf. Since then, she has introduced hundreds of women to the waves, creating a supportive community that challenges traditional surf culture and celebrates inclusivity, resilience, and joy in the water.
Jessa Williams is the founder of Intrsxtn Surf, a Los Angeles-based surf collective dedicated to empowering Black women and women of color through surfing. After discovering the ocean as a space for healing and self-discovery, she launched Intrsxtn just one year after learning to surf. Since then, she has introduced hundreds of women to the waves, creating a supportive community that challenges traditional surf culture and celebrates inclusivity, resilience, and joy in the water.
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Shelby Stanger:
I've been surfing since I was 11, and the sport has had a huge impact on my life. In my 20s, I worked as a surf instructor and I even met my partner Johnny in the water in Costa Rica. The courage I've gained from surfing has helped me in so many parts of my life, including taking the leap to pursue a career as an adventure journalist. Surfer Jessa Williams shares a similar journey, except she learned to surf just five years ago, after taking her son to his first surf lesson. The sport has been a catalyst for Jessa to build a new community and to become more vulnerable, both in and out of the water.
Jessa Williams:
One thing that's so great about surfing is that it teaches you to trust yourself because no matter what, I can be right there next to the girl that I'm teaching and I can say, "Okay, this is the timing. This is the body positioning you need. When the wave comes, you have to do it, and there's nothing I can do for you in that moment." And I think that's what leads to the experience being so empowering for so many of us.
Shelby Stanger:
Jessa Williams is the founder of Intrsxtn Surf, a woman surf collective based in Los Angeles. For Jessa, the ocean is a place where she gets to disconnect from her busy life and empower other Black women. It was only a year after she learned to surf that Jessa launched Intrsxtn, but since then, she's taught hundreds of women of color to ride waves. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.
Jessa Williams, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Jessa Williams:
Shelby, thank you so much. I am so excited to be here and chat with you today.
Shelby Stanger:
So you have this beautiful surfing community, Intrsxtn Surf, and you're a surfer, but when you grew up, did you ever surf? Did you have anything to do with the outdoors?
Jessa Williams:
That's a great question. No. My experience in the outdoors growing up was pretty limited. I live in LA now, but I grew up in the Midwest in Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland is a lakefront city, so we had Lake Erie. Sometimes we would swim at the beach, at the lake in the summer, but that was pretty much the extent of my outdoor exposure, I guess.
Shelby Stanger:
So how did you get into surfing and why LA? How did you come out to LA?
Jessa Williams:
I was just the girl who always wanted to live in LA and so I didn't make it out here until 2018 and I got into surfing in 2020 because 2020 was the pandemic. Everything was closed. My son's activities and sports were all shut down because of the pandemic, but it was safe to be outside. And I put him into a surf lesson because I saw that here in LA the kids out here learn how to surf when they're really young, and he did it. And the second time that he went back for another lesson, he bullied me into doing it with him. He was like, "Do it with me mom." And I was like, "No, I have no desire to do that. I'm good." And he just persisted and persisted like, "No, no, no. I want you to do it with me. Just try it. Just try it."
Shelby Stanger:
What's your son's name?
Jessa Williams:
Marcello.
Shelby Stanger:
Marcello. I love that Marcello bullied you into doing it. So then what was it like when you finally surfed? How did he get you finally out there?
Jessa Williams:
Well, like I said, he really had to pressure me into it, and then I just gave in because I was like, okay, I'll do it because of Marcello. Cool mom. What can I say? I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom. No. So whatever. I gave in and I put on the wetsuit and I remember walking out towards the water and thinking, "Well, now that I am going to do this, how hard could it be?" I was an athlete my whole life. I grew up being a very serious gymnast. So I'm like, "I'll have great balance. I'll have great body awareness out there. How hard could it really be?" And then... famous last words, right? I was humbled immediately, immediately, as the ocean has a way of doing. I, on the first time I tried to pop up, popped up just like a gymnast would and threw my arms up in the air like I was sticking a landing or something and I fell off immediately and it was just really overwhelming and it was really hard for me.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. So that first lesson, something in you made you want to go back again and again. What happened next?
Jessa Williams:
The reason that I decided to go take another lesson was because it was harder than I thought it was going to be. You know that feeling that you have when you're a kid and you're doing whatever, anything, something on your bike or a handstand in the swimming pool or whatever, and you don't get it right. And you know how kids are like, "Wait, wait, wait, mom, one more time. Let me show you one more time. Wait, wait, wait." I was like that because it was hard and it's hard to get up to your feet and it's hard to stay up on your feet, but I just want to try it one more time. And I think that feeling that I hadn't had since I was a kid just kept me coming back for more.
Shelby Stanger:
Even though Jessa struggled in her first surf lessons, surfing gave her an endorphin rush that kept her coming back. She also noticed that after a surf session, she carried a sense of calm and happiness with her for the rest of the day. Being in the water forced her to face and get comfortable with her own vulnerability. It was a helpful feeling during an uncertain time in the world. When the pandemic hit, Jessa was laid off from her marketing job in the tech industry. The silver lining of being unemployed, however meant she had a lot of time on her hands to get out and go surfing.
If you worked in tech for a tech company, my guess is that you spent a lot of time in front of a screen and now you're spending a lot of time in the ocean. How did that affect you?
Jessa Williams:
So when I found surfing, it was like, whoa, I didn't know that I could feel like this. I didn't know that I could just go do something outside that kind of slowed my brain down and made me feel not overwhelmed. I just thought, I don't know. That's life. You're an adult. You're just constantly supposed to feel, not even stressed out, just overwhelmed every day, spending hours every day thinking about all the tabs that are open. And I think that's really why I love it and kept doing it. It was because I was like, "Oh, I'm getting really great at this thing." When you're used to being a corporate baddie and a mom and just so many things to so many different people, nobody can get to me here while I'm out in the water, don't need anything from me right now because you ain't going to get it, right? I can't answer a phone. I can't be distracted by some notification pinging on my phone. It was the one space that I ever felt present in the moment and still do.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that. So when did you go out on your own without an instructor?
Jessa Williams:
The first time I went out without an instructor, I went with two girlfriends. We went in the middle of the day. It was so windy, which if you don't surf, that's like the worst time to surf is when the winds are the highest, right? We barely knew how to check Surfline or read the surf report to see what the forecast was going to be for the day, and it was just carnage.
Shelby Stanger:
But you were with your two girlfriends, so it was probably super fun and funny.
Jessa Williams:
We felt so cool. We were like, "Yeah, we did that. We just went and surfed just the three of us." We just got, yeah, worked. The three of us had all taken lessons, but it's just a different experience to just venture out there on your own and be like, okay, I got this. But that being said, we, I'm sure, looked crazy out there, but we had a great time and we felt so empowered to be like, "Oh, we out here. We could just go do this whenever we want to." It was cool.
Shelby Stanger:
There is something about surfing that makes you feel very cool. I don't know why, but it does. So my guess is you're actually pretty good at surfing and you get good somewhat fast because you have this gymnastics background. I've taught enough women how to surf, and if you have a gymnastics background, gymnasts and dancers tend to be the best at learning to surf just because they have this body awareness. Is there a moment where you catch a wave and you do not forget this wave? Is there a wave you remember early on?
Jessa Williams:
First, let me fact check you here.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah.
Jessa Williams:
I'm not a great surfer. I can do it, right?
Shelby Stanger:
But you could probably stand up and ride a wave to shore.
Jessa Williams:
Yeah, I can ride a wave, but I'm very mediocre.
Shelby Stanger:
But not everybody can do that right away, is what I'm saying.
Jessa Williams:
Yeah. I figured it out enough to be functional with it and be able to be out there and enjoy it, which was all I cared about, but that's kind of something that always has made it cool to me is every other thing I've ever tried to do, a lot of it became about being so good at it and trying to be the best at it. And I don't do that to myself with surfing. I'm just like, I'm just here for the vibes. I think the first time I felt like I could successfully ride a wave on my own, I definitely remember that feeling. Looking back, it's like anybody who surfs knows there's how you think you look when you go out to surf when you're a beginner versus what it looked like. It felt like such a rush. I was like, "Oh my God." You're looking around. "Did you see? I just did that thing."
And it's like you caught whitewash and rode it straight into the shore. But it feels like how somebody feels when they catch a big massive wave and are doing something at a high level, which is what's really cool about surfing is that you can kind of catch that stoke really early on. Even if you can just be out there at a super beginner level, it still is going to provide a rush of endorphins and happiness for you. And so I definitely got that rush when I could just do anything on my own.
Shelby Stanger:
Jessa Williams learned to surf during the pandemic when her son begged her to get in the water with him during his own surf lessons. She'd recently lost her job, so she had plenty of time to figure out the basics. After only a year, Jessa started her own organization called Intrsxtn Surf. Her goal was to provide community and a safe place for other women of color to learn the sport. The idea for Intrsxtn came to her after she had a tense encounter in the water.
Jessa Williams:
One of the first times that I was out surfing, not in a lesson setting, there was a situation where I was harassed really badly in the water by some guy that was out surfing, and he said all the words you should never say to somebody, the N word, the B word, was telling me to get out of the water. It was crazy. And again, this was like 2020 when it just felt like every day we were seeing videos on our timelines, on our phones of these really heated, crazy interactions between people in public fueled by race.
I just remember feeling so angry and so powerless specifically because this was happening while we were out in the water, and I was such a beginner at this thing. He really caught me at my most vulnerable moment ever. And so I was like, you know what? I don't have to be an amazing surfer to create a safe space for other Black women or women of color to get to enjoy this thing or just try this thing in a way where they feel safe and protected and seen. And so I think about six months maybe after that altercation happened, I created Intrsxtn Surf and the term Intrsxtn being a play on the word intersectionality, right? Because I recognized that that experience that I had was sort of not just because I was a woman in the water or not just because I'm Black. It was like the intersectionality of those identities that made it possible and made the experience what it was.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, I'm really sorry that happened, but it's really cool that you started this and you weren't a professional surfer. When I actually started teaching surfing, I barely know how to surf. I could stand up, and I'm really good at encouraging women to get on a board in a wetsuit, push them into waves and yell, "Go." And it's kind of like a really key trait that you need to teach someone to just get in the water for the first time.
Jessa Williams:
Yeah. Wow. So many similarities that everything you just said resonates with me. I feel like I'm a much better teacher and coach. I mean, after I quit gymnastics, I coached for a while and I felt excited. It almost felt like I got to do that again once I started Intrsxtn and I wasn't just surfing in community with other women, but I was doing very beginner surf lessons and just bringing other women into the water with me for the first time. The difference is when I'm coaching gymnastics, I can physically get in there and spot a girl and help her through her move and be there while she's learning that movement. And with surfing, one thing that's so great about surfing is that it teaches you to trust yourself. Because no matter what, I can be right there next to the girl that I'm teaching and I can say, "Okay, this is the timing. This is the body positioning you need. When the wave comes, you have to do it, and there's nothing I can do for you in that moment. There really isn't."
So that was an interesting experience for me where coaching gymnastics, again, I could get in there and really be with the gymnast, but with surfing it was, "I'm going to help you to the best of my ability. But girl, you know when the wave comes, it's all on you." And I think that's what leads to the experience being so empowering for so many of us is it really is on you to figure it out once you've gotten some direction and to overcome your fears many times when that moment comes to catch the wave and it forces you to trust yourself in that moment.
Shelby Stanger:
For Intrsxtn's first meetup, Jessa invited people to join her to a beach south of Santa Monica. She posted about it on Instagram and was only expecting maybe a handful of people to join her. Jessa was blown away when over 100 people showed up. There were friends of hers, connections she'd made in the water, and a ton of random women who'd seen her Instagram page and were inspired by her surfing journey. That first gathering showed Jessa that people were hungry for this kind of group. Today, Intrsxtn Surf has blossomed into a flourishing community. It's also become Jessa's full-time job and one of her proudest accomplishments. The organization offers meetups, lessons, events and retreats. For women who have never surfed before, Intrsxtn provides the very first lesson for free and students can borrow all the gear they need, including a surfboard and a wetsuit.
Do you have any stories of either people from that first event or people who've been through Intrsxtn Surf and how the community has really changed them or their first time learning to surf and what it did for them?
Jessa Williams:
Yeah, I mean, the best thing and the coolest thing about Intrsxtn Surf is that we created a real community, meaning it's women who are meeting through Intrsxtn but are building their own relationships with each other. And so seeing some of the friendships that have formed, I mean, there's girls who are best friends now because they took lessons together with us or they've just been coming around for the last few years and surfing together and now they're so close. I think the thing that's most fulfilling is just the things that people share with you, the text messages that you get, or the things that some of the girls share with me about how it's affected their lives outside of surfing, everything from the isolation that a lot of us are experiencing right now. I mean, we are collectively experiencing an epidemic of loneliness, and I think that hits even harder for Gen Z and younger people.
And so hearing about how Intrsxtn has been able to be a space to build real friendships, real bonds, real community, chosen family for some of the girls, that's not something that I could have thought of when I was just starting it. Seeing somebody go from, "I don't think I'm capable of doing this thing" to trying over and over and over again and being able to do it. And for some of the girls, battling through a lot of fear in between, seeing them have that, the stoke, I guess, that pep in their step once they leave a session and they leave the water, I take that very seriously. It's a very humbling experience to get to work with people in the water like this.
Shelby Stanger:
Jessa, there's no job I've ever had that changes more lives than pushing someone into their first wave.
Jessa Williams:
You better say that. You better say that.
Shelby Stanger:
It's crazy because I taught women to surf when I was young and I was like 16, 17. I didn't think anything of it. They'd come, they'd learn to ride a few waves, and then shortly after they'd call me and they'd be like, "Shelby, I quit my job," or "I divorced this person that I really needed to not be with or ended this bad relationship and started this and that." And I imagine you get some of these messages.
Jessa Williams:
Totally. I mean, the thing that I've noticed is people kind of come apart in the water. They do. They do though.
Shelby Stanger:
Tell me more. Tell me more. What does that look like?
Jessa Williams:
I mean, you're laughing because you get it. Right?
Shelby Stanger:
Describe it to me. Show it to me. But show it to me. Nobody else gets it. What does this look like when they come apart in the water? I can describe it, but I want to hear you describe it.
Jessa Williams:
Listen, people come apart in the water. I don't know what it is. I can tell you what it looks like and what it feels like. I don't know why this happens. I think it's about vulnerability. You're taking people who, it doesn't matter maybe what's going on with them in their lives, when you put them bobbing around on a little piece of foam on their surfboard and they're bobbing around in the most powerful, vast, deepest, widest natural source, which is the ocean, they are vulnerable. There's no way around it. And I think being in that space just sort of resets your brain in a way. And so a lot of times, a lot of emotions can flow out.
So sometimes it's not the person who shows up to the lesson thinking that they're going to be scared, that goes out there and is freaking out. Sometimes people think, "Oh, this is going to be a fun activity for me to do with some other cool girls." And they go out there and I guess the vulnerability of being out there brings things to the surface that maybe they weren't dealing with before. And so it's a place where some people feel grief come up. It's a place where some people feel sadness and people just come apart in the water, which is why I take it really seriously to be a part of a woman's surf journey because it's always about so much more than just surf.
Shelby Stanger:
A lot of the time, surfing is just pure joy, but there's something about being in the ocean that is deeply healing and transformative. I've experienced it myself and seen it as an instructor. Jessa has also felt and seen the effects of surfing firsthand for herself, for the women she teaches, and even for her boyfriend, Tre'lan Michael, who she also met through the sport. In fact, a few years ago, Jessa produced an award-winning short film about Tre'lan called Moving Mountains.
Jessa Williams:
Surfing has brought me so many amazing things in my life, including my boyfriend. He's a big wave surfer. His name is Tre'lan Michael, and Moving Mountains is a documentary that I did about his life. It's all about his story of growing up landlocked actually, and becoming a big wave surfer. And how did that happen? Why did that happen? And sort of the real storyline and the real reason for wanting to make a film about Tre'lan is about how surfing has just been a game changer for his mental health. And so I wanted to explore that. I wanted to help him share that for young Black people in particular. That's a group of people who are disproportionately impacted with mental health struggles and disproportionately lack access to resources. So seeing what Tre'lan has been able to do, how he's changed his entire life through surfing really, surfing being the vehicle that has done that for him, that has completely changed his life. It just is something that I was like, "I just know if other people heard your story and understood some of your experiences, that they would be inspired and they would be touched."
Shelby Stanger:
I'm excited for you and dating a big wave surfer is pretty interesting. Has he pushed you into being a little bit more comfortable in uncomfortable surf?
Jessa Williams:
I don't know how you and your partner are with surfing together. When my girlfriends found out, "Oh, you're dating this surfer," I think people envision me spending my days paddling out with my surfer boyfriend and splashing water and laughing and I don't know, sitting on our boards by the sunset. And that is not how it was ever for us. It was really hard for us to surf together. We can now, but for the first couple years, it was just hard because he's a big wave surfer. He wants the biggest waves possible. I want the most gentle baby waves.
And he has been doing this for, I don't know, 10 years at this point, but you better believe I took and still take full advantage of learning from him. And so even though it didn't feel easy for us to go surf together, we did it a lot and we still do it a lot because his knowledge is just insane. His knowledge of the water, the environment, the conditions, the surf conditions, the waves, the why the wave does this and how it does that and what you need to do. He's just so deep into it. It just is his whole world. So for me, I'm just like, I want to continue to learn through him, and he's been my greatest teacher for all things surf related.
Shelby Stanger:
That's so interesting. Yeah. We are that disgusting couple that splashes and takes waves together, but it's really interesting. So you were in marketing and you got laid off. Your son bullied you into surfing. You fell in love with it. You decided to start an organization that got other women of color into surfing, and in some ways it gave you the courage to not only start an organization, but now you're in a whole other career. You're a filmmaker and you've pursued love and all these other things it sounds like have opened up and surfing has been a little bit of a thread.
Jessa Williams:
That is 100% the truth. It's not been a little bit of the thread, it's been the thread, it's been the vehicle. I'm sure any surfer that's listening to this probably feels the same about surf having such an impact on their life. I don't know what it is. I think it's maybe what we spoke on earlier about how surfing really teaches you to trust yourself. I've done every other sport. I definitely identify as an athlete my whole life from childhood. I've been in spaces where I have not seen myself reflected that much. I've been in tech working with some of the top tech companies in the world that are very white and male dominated.
Something about surfing really woke something up in me, I guess, that gave me a physical practice every time I did it to trust myself. And I do believe that that's why now I've been able to really just be a more self-actualized person with some of the things that I've wanted to do at a higher level and faster. I think it's just shown me that if you just keep showing up and trying and trying and trying and give yourself permission to do it, you can do all these things that you maybe privately, secretly kind of wanted to do or wanted to try, but you weren't standing in your power and surfing forces you to do that, or you're going to get knocked on your ass. You're going to wipe out and fall down. And so yeah, I have surf to thank for a lot of the goodness in my life.
Shelby Stanger:
If you're in LA and you want to check out Intrsxtn, go to their website at intrsxtnsurf.com. It's spelled I-N-T-R-S-X-T-N surf.com. To keep up with Jessa. Check her out at jae_bella on Instagram. That's J-A-E underscore B-E-L-L-A. Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producers are Jenny Barber and Hannah Boyd. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.