Kanoa Greene was born into a family of surfers in Hawaii, but for a long time she didn't feel like she belonged in the ocean. She'd never seen a plus size person out in the water and she struggled to find gear to fit her body. Eventually when she was in her 30s, she stood up on a wave for the first time and it opened up a new world for her. Now Kanoa's goal is to help other people, no matter their size, discover their own sense of adventure.
Kanoa Greene was born into a family of surfers in Hawaii, but for a long time she didn't feel like she belonged in the ocean. She'd never seen a plus size person out in the water and she struggled to find gear to fit her body. Eventually when she was in her 30s, she stood up on a wave for the first time and it opened up a new world for her. Now Kanoa's goal is to help other people, no matter their size, discover their own sense of adventure.
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Kanoa Greene:
When I thought fitness and outdoor adventure kind of popped into my mind, I was like, are you nuts? What? I'm like, I'm this fat opera singer, like this makes zero sense. I just took the leap, one foot in front of the other. Right?
Shelby Stanger:
Kanoa Greene was born into a family of surfers in Hawaii, but for a long time she didn't feel like she belonged in the ocean. She'd never seen a plus size person out in the water and she struggled to find gear to fit her body. Kanoa put surfing on the back burner. Eventually when she was in her 30s, she stood up on a wave for the first time and it opened up a new world for her. Now Kanoa's goal is to help other people, no matter their size, discover their own sense of adventure.
I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-Op Studios production brought to you by Capital One.
A few years ago, Kanoa Greene started her own outdoor guiding company, Nakoa Adventure. Although her business has been a huge success, Kanoa's path to become an entrepreneur has been anything but ordinary. When she was young, Kanoa was headed in a completely different direction. She was pursuing music and went to school to become an opera singer.
Kanoa, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Kanoa Greene:
Thank you for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
You are sitting in this purple studio with a bright pink, beautiful tank top and I just love it. You are bringing the energy. It's awesome.
Kanoa Greene:
I'm ready.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, first of all, yay. I love talking to other surfers.
Kanoa Greene:
Yay.
Shelby Stanger:
I just went out and it was really quite good. I live in San Diego. But before you were a surfer, I read that your first love was opera singing.
Kanoa Greene:
Yes. I was not doing sports. I was not doing team sports. I was a choir girl. It was music. And again, from Hawaii, we love music. It's part of my life, my every day. And in high school I saw an opera performance in our school. They came and toured and did a little something and I was hooked and I thought I could get paid to wear ballgowns and wear tiaras? And just sing? And it really was a love and a passion of mine for a long time.
Shelby Stanger:
So what did you do with opera? Talk to me a little bit more about this. I'm really intrigued because I love people who follow passions, whether they're outdoors or creatively, and singing is something I'm absolutely terrible at, but I so appreciate people who are good at it. No one wants to hear me sing. I would love to hear you sing.
Kanoa Greene:
Amazing.
Shelby Stanger:
Your laugh is awesome. I could bottle that up and make it a voicemail.
Kanoa Greene:
Opera definitely went away... I pursued both undergrad and graduate school, so there was a real commitment there. I thought this was going to be the thing, and it was just very intense and mimicked very much what the real world would look like. And I thought, this is not how I want to live my life. It's no longer fun. I think even athletes can understand this is when you take something that you love and you're passionate about and then it becomes work it's no longer about having fun, and that's what happened. By the time I was getting close to the end of grad school, I knew that I would leave that institution and never do this thing again.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow, that's powerful. I mean, how did you turn around and not look back?
Kanoa Greene:
It was a process because I felt like a failure, right? Since high school, I had invested time and money and had convinced my family and my friends to support this journey. So making the decision and really knowing and facing myself of this is something that I really have no joy in doing. I felt like a failure. Absolutely.
And it took a good two to three years for me to even start to come over that hump of believing in myself again to do anything because I felt if I had invested so much time into this, who's to say that I'm going to be okay doing something else? Can I do something else? Because I hadn't learned to do anything else. So it was a process, but the outdoors actually was part of the process of me getting out of that. It started with hiking, then paddleboarding, and then by the time I leaned into surfing, I just found such a passion and joy and purpose that it fueled me in a way that singing actually never had before. So now I can sit here and say, "I was made to do the thing that I'm doing." I never could say that as a singer.
Shelby Stanger:
After finishing graduate school and deciding to leave opera behind, Kanoa got a job as a recruiter for an advertising firm in New York City. She was really good at it, but corporate life was exhausting. Kanoa knew that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life working long hours in a job she didn't love.
A lot of people are stuck. They're in a career they don't totally want to do or they think they should be doing, and then they make this leap finally and they find joy. But the road from there to joy is just a full roller coaster.
Kanoa Greene:
Absolutely. In corporate, the great thing about being a recruiter is I was able to connect with a lot of people and hear their stories. And in that role I spoke with so many incredible women and what I found in working with them, a lot of them would get into those positions and still over time be unhappy and actually relatively quickly. Right? You're like, "This is going to be my dream job." And six months in all the glimmer, shiny has gone away. And after three years I realized I did not want that to be me. I was very successful in this corporate setting, a lot of success that I had not seen as an opera singer. And as an opera singer, it's not what you're doing well, but how you can do better. A lot of athletes know this. It's like, "Okay, but how can we improve? How can we go faster? How can we go longer?"
And that's how it was for singing. So being in a corporate space where I was being awarded by the work that I was doing, I was like, oh, I love this and I'm getting paid well? And there's one... I'm like, what? Why wasn't I in this world sooner? But it came with a price and a sacrifice. I was working 70-hour weeks, I was exhausted all the time. I was not happy. And I realized at some point I would have to jump ship or I'm just going to get comfortable and never leave. And literally I had no plan. I just turned in my resignation and was like, "I don't know what I'm going to do, but it's not this." And I left and started the road of trying to figure it out.
Shelby Stanger:
That's bold and brave. How did you figure it out?
Kanoa Greene:
So that was January 1st, 2014. My last day in corporate. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I thought maybe it could be music again. So I dipped the toe in that and quickly realized that was not a fluke. Leaving that world was not a fluke. I had an interest in fitness because I loved the energy, right? When you go to a fitness class with your friends and there's good music and you're dancing, I loved the energy of that. But again, there was this big question mark because I had never seen a plus size fitness instructor ever in 2015, 20... never. So I thought it's something maybe I can do as a hobby. And I just started for me, delving into fitness for my own joy. And that included hiking and doing things outdoors.
Shelby Stanger:
Once she left the corporate world, Kanoa was in a phase of self-discovery. In the midst of figuring out what was next, she started exploring her passion for fitness. She went to various fitness events and posted educational and motivational videos on social media. Things were starting to come together, but Kanoa had a setback when she experienced a detached retina. She went into surgery to have it repaired, but ended up losing 90% of the vision in her right eye.
Kanoa Greene:
So I went into what they say is a routine surgery. Everyone said everything was going to be fine. I went into the surgery being able to see, so I thought we were going to be fine. So to come out of that experience having lost eyesight, I had no way to prepare for that mentally, emotionally, and your world gets turned upside down. Because that really was for me, "Well then what am I really going to do now?" I don't know anyone else who's been in this situation. And I went to Hawaii, was like, let me go to Hawaii and recover and do a slower pace while I go through this process. And through that 22 month process is when I started to explore the outdoors and do hiking. And it was just for me, a place to be outside and to connect with myself. And that's when I discovered in hiking that I have strength in my body as a plus size woman and I have capability. And it started to build my confidence.
Shelby Stanger:
When Kanoa's world was falling apart, getting outside helped build her back up. This life-changing event made her realize something important. Instead of being held back by fear, Kanoa wanted to pursue all the things she'd been scared of before. In addition to hiking, she experimented with trying other new outdoor sports. Surfing in particular was something she had dreamed of doing since she was a kid. And in 2018, Kanoa finally caught her first wave.
I want to know how you got into the sport.
Kanoa Greene:
Well, I'm native Hawaiian and my whole family grew up surfing. It was just part of their lifestyle. Surf culture was part of my life, and I had never done it because I've always been bigger. I've always been plus size. So I just assumed it was never for me. But I had such a love and admiration for this sport. It, one, looks really cool and so graceful and the energy, I wanted to be a part of that world. But again, I put up my own gates of "that's not for me." So let's just resolve into, "I'm a city girl and I like shopping and that's all I like to do..." Because I didn't think the outdoors were for me. And it took a long time for me to finally tear down that disbelief and say, "You know what? Let me at least try it. Again, I have not seen people in my body do this thing, but let me just try and see if I can do it."
And I thought originally I would start in 2016. That's when I had some gumption and confidence of like, okay, I'm going to do this. I haven't seen plus-sized people out there and I'm going to do it. But in that process, in 2016, I was looking for surf gear and I couldn't find anything that was remotely close to my size. And so it would take another two years until I finally just said, "You know what? Screw it. Even if there's no gear for me, I'm going to go out there and least just try it." And I fell in love.
Shelby Stanger:
What year was this? When did you start? Where did you start?
Kanoa Greene:
So it was funny. In 2018, January, everyone's doing their New Year's resolutions or their goals list. And one of mine was learning to surf. That was January 1st. One of the things. Didn't know how, when, where, but that's just one of the things I put out in the universe.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2018?
Kanoa Greene:
2018. So very new.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, you rip. I'm kind of mind blown because I've seen pictures of you and you're very good.
Kanoa Greene:
Thank you. It's in my genetics.
Shelby Stanger:
That's not fair. Okay, so 2018. You learn to surf.
Kanoa Greene:
2018, I put it out there and I'm thinking, I'm just going to go through the process of strengthening my body in the skills, the flexibility, to get out there. Sharing that journey. And a brand had reached out and said, "Hey, we're actually wanting to create the first size inclusive surf wear brand." And so they're like, "Come on out to Costa Rica." And I was like, "Listen, you know I don't know how to surf yet. I'm sharing that I want to learn how to surf. I don't actually know how to surf." And they're like, "Oh no, it's fine. We're going to have a lot of people who've never surfed before. We just want to test out the clothing and we're going to learn and have lessons and it'll be a week in Costa Rica." So I said yes. And in October 2018, we went out to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and surfed for seven days. And the first six days were brutal.
But again, I went out there with so much pressure on my shoulders of I have to prove this to myself and the world that I can do this. And I wasn't having fun. I was just going out there with this mission. And it wasn't until my instructor was like, "Listen, this is about having fun and just being out there and playing." And I was like, okay. So I booked a private session and we went out, had fun, and I stood up the first time and then the second and then the third, and then it was just like, "Oh, we just have to have fun." And then I was obsessed.
Shelby Stanger:
On that trip, Kanoa realized that if she had been discouraged from surfing, so had other people of all shapes and sizes. The opportunities for plus size people to go adventuring were few and far between. In that moment, Kanoa took it upon herself to bridge the gap. When we come back, Kanoa tells us about starting her guiding company, breaking through fear, and her advice for going after wild ideas.
Kanoa Greene had always loved trying new workouts, from yoga to strength training to Zumba, even rollerblading. But one sport had fascinated her since she was a kid: surfing. After many years of doubting that she would ever be able to stand up on a board, Kanoa rode her first wave in 2018 and her entire world changed. She felt empowered, free and joyful. Before that surf trip, Kanoa had attracted a social media following posting videos of workouts and adventures that were accessible for plus-size bodies. When her followers started asking where they could learn to surf, Kanoa realized that she could fill a gap in the industry, so she decided to start Nakoa Adventure.
So you go on this press trip, you finally learn to surf. How did you go from that to leading adventure trips?
Kanoa Greene:
When I got back, I had shared that whole journey and my Instagram followers asked me, "Where can we go and have this type of experience?" They could see that it was a safe space. They could see that there were different bodies out there having a great time just exploring what we could do. And I said, "Okay, give me a minute. Let me see if there is a plus size surf camp out there." And I googled and I looked and I searched and I saw nothing that was really specific to that. And I felt bad. I couldn't go back and say, "Oh, I'm sorry. There's nothing. Too bad for you. Good luck." I really couldn't. It was, I had that moment of, well, let me see if I can at least try to provide something. Something small, Cocoa Beach in Florida, so it's not a big thing, something small. And that's what started it. The first surf camp that we created was in 04/2019. It ended up not happening because I think we postponed and then COVID happened.
But it really sparked that idea that we needed to create something or that I needed to create something that people could actually do this. And so the first actual any adventure retreat that we had was in 2021 in Greece, which is fantastic. I taught fitness, I taught yoga. It was a mix of just movement. We did a little bit of hiking. And that experience really for me, I had this idea, but seeing it in action and seeing how it opened up people in ways that, even for me, I've never had friends that look like me.
I'm always the biggest girl in my group friends. And I said "no" to doing a lot of things because I didn't want to be embarrassed. And to see yourself surrounded with people who understand and who get it and who are champions of you, it just... you let the walls down. And that's when I realized this is what I meant to do. And so this year we had a adventure in Costa Rica. It was a mixture of body surfing, surfing, kayaking, and paddleboarding. Next year we're doing six with a combination of a surf camp, rock climbing, hiking, paddleboarding, just giving options because we don't have spaces like that for the plus-size community to get out there and do these things.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. When did you officially found Nakoa Adventures?
Kanoa Greene:
It is registered and trademarked as of 2023.
Shelby Stanger:
Amazing. Okay. Nakoa Adventures. Nakoa, does that mean warriors something and brave warriors in Hawaii?
Kanoa Greene:
It means brave warrior. Yes.
Shelby Stanger:
Talk to me about this name, why you decided to found this company and what your mission is.
Kanoa Greene:
Yes. Well, first, my name is hidden in it, obviously. I mean, Kanoa and Nakoa is in there.
Shelby Stanger:
Duh. Awesome. Genius.
Kanoa Greene:
And it just so happens that it meant brave and warrior and because that is my love, is creating brave spaces. For a lot of my life, I didn't think I could be brave. It was closing off that world, that belief, Because I just felt like the world was telling me that I couldn't and I didn't belong there.
And so for me, I wanted to... Once I discovered what that felt like, and that is possible, I wanted to create those for other people. And it's a place for them to come and they can be brave, however that looks like for them with other people who understand and want to be their cheerleaders alongside of them. And our mission is really just to break down those barriers and to bridge the gap. Because I think early on in my journey, especially in the outdoor industry and fitness, a lot of it was from representation. I would be in magazines. I was in, my first magazine was in 2020, in Surf Girl magazine as a surfer, and I think since then it's been maybe four magazines. I was on Good Morning America last year, and there's been a lot of representation, which I think is nice.
Shelby Stanger:
No big deal.
Kanoa Greene:
I mean it's nice, but it doesn't help someone then get out there and have the equipment and the instructors and the space to actually get out there and do that.
I have people who've come to me and they're like, "You gave me the courage to go out there and rent a paddleboard, and they told me that they don't have a paddleboard that's big enough for me." For me, that breaks my heart because then that person turns around and they may not have the courage to go back out somewhere else and ask that question.
So it was really important for me to create a place where they don't have to ask those questions. They don't have to worry about those things. They just have to come ready to have fun. That's it. I got everything else covered, and it really allows people to step into bravery and confidence and the world of belief and that they can do anything. Not only just that thing, but what other things in this life you can do that maybe you didn't realize you could do, but now you're discovering that through this activity.
Shelby Stanger:
I've always thought of all the jobs I've had in my life, being a surf instructor was the most important because you get to interact with people and you get to basically do something that empowers them and then they go change their life.
Kanoa Greene:
Change their life.
Shelby Stanger:
Just because you push them into a wave. It's powerful. I always tell everybody, "Go be an outdoor guide." It is a big important job.
Kanoa Greene:
The outdoors are incredible, incredible.
Shelby Stanger:
But you're also this business owner, and I know what it takes to run retreats and it's not easy. You're going to do six next year?
Kanoa Greene:
Yes.
Shelby Stanger:
Good on you. That's awesome.
Kanoa Greene:
Six in four different countries, four or five different countries.
Shelby Stanger:
Amazing. So what does this look like?
Kanoa Greene:
The great thing is, especially when you do adventure travel, working with third party partners has been just stellar for me because I really did want to work with experts in these areas who could do a lot of the heavy lifting, who know things that I don't know. So I do work with a lot of people who are way smarter than me. Thankfully. I mean, my corporate career really helped drive the entrepreneur in me. It's so funny because in grad school, I actually originally wanted to major in international business and my family told me that I could not, and I'd have to go to school for music. And it's funny that now full circle.
Shelby Stanger:
You're doing international business.
Kanoa Greene:
Exactly.
Shelby Stanger:
Nakoa Adventure leads outdoor sports trips for people with plus-sized bodies. This year, their roster includes surfing, paddleboarding, hiking, rock climbing, and kayaking. For the past three years, the trips have filled up so quickly that in 2024, Kanoa is leading six of them in different countries around the world.
It just goes to show that sometimes you have to take a leap of faith in order to find the right path. Kanoa tried plenty of other routes before building a business around outdoor adventure. It turns out that the thing that resonated for her also resonated with countless other plus size adventurers. People wanted representation and their own opportunities to play outside. It wasn't always clear that this idea would be a success. Just starting any business, there was a risk that it wouldn't work out, but Kanoa has learned plenty of lessons about failure from adventuring outside.
What about failure? Failure is a big part of adventure. When you rock climb, you're going to fail and fall a ton. When you surf a wave, especially when you're learning, nine times out of 10, you're going to fall. Talk to me about your approach to failure.
Kanoa Greene:
That was hard because I think I was scared to fail after the opera debacle and actually even after corporate, because I had realized I didn't want to do singing. Left that. Three, four years of corporate, and I realized I didn't want to do that. It was hard because then I thought, well, now I failed at two things. I failed. One thing I had invested time in and everyone thought I was going to be great at. Corporate, I was doing very well and successful when I left. So going into movement and failure now, I have had to learn to not be afraid of it and to embrace it.
That's a process because it's depending what your relationship with failure is, and everyone probably has something that they can go back to that has really instilled that fear of failure in them. But for me now, I am not afraid of failing. I'm honestly at a point now where I'm like, what if I fail? What happens if I go and do these... And this is a great example, going from one adventure to six next year. I was like, holy shit. We've sold out the one every year within 24 hours. Literally, we put it out there and it's gone because people want it. So then doing six, it was like, well, I hope people want six. You're like, well, are enough people are going to want to do these? And I'm like, you know what? Let's do it. I have to go big. I'm doing this, and what happens if we only sell out one? It's okay. I am learning, and it's not the end of the world. My face is not on fire. We're good.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that. What advice would you give to people who want to follow their own wild ideas, but maybe they feel like they don't belong or they don't fit in or whatever?
Kanoa Greene:
It's easier said than done, but it really is the "do it." I truly believe that the dream, that passion that has been put in your heart was specifically for you, and there is not another human on this planet that can bring that to life in the way that you can. And I really want people to grasp that. It's not by accident that that became your passion. When I thought fitness and outdoor adventure kind of popped into my mind, I was like, are you nuts? What? I'm like, I'm this fat opera singer, like this makes zero sense. And I just took the leap, one foot in front of the other, right? It's like you stumble, you get back up and you're like, okay, I'll figure out the next step. And you take that step and you're like, and you do that over and over until you're at the place where you're like, holy sh**, I'm doing the thing I'm meant to do, and I would do every failure, all of it again, to end up where I am right now.
Shelby Stanger:
If you want to follow Kanoa or maybe even go on one of her trips, check out her Instagram @KanoaGreene. That's K-A-N-O-A-G-R-E-E-N-E. You can learn more about her company and trips at nakoaadventure.com. That's N-A-K-O-A adventure.com.
If you like this episode, I think you'll love our interview with Kailey Kornhauser, one of the founders of All Bodies on Bikes, as well as our interview with Izzy Tihanyi, the founder of the Surf Diva Surf School. You can find the links to these episodes in our show notes.
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 Palo Motala 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.