Ruby Southwell: Natural Action

Ruby Southwell: Natural Action

Author: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich - surf stories & ocean adventures August 14, 2024 Duration: 1:18:38

Did you feel safe in your childhood home? If not, were you able to leave, or did you have to stay? 

Ruby Southwell hit the road, travelling solo for years, searching for guidance. What she found was a deep and clear inner well - and a renewed love for riding waves. 

At age 22, Ruby moved to Indonesia’s remote Mentawai Islands, where she surf guided, taught herself how to tube ride, and lived offgrid with a local family for just over two years.  

Ruby is known as a wildly talented navigator of weighty situations – both on land and in the water. Clips of her have been shared readily on social media – where you’ve probably seen her riding twinnes, pulling into big barrels, and displacing water in a distinctly feminine way. 

When "Big Surfing" came knocking about sponsorship, Ruby took the deal, but she also took the reins. With her content budget, Ruby defied the norms and made a short film about the Mentawai’s pioneering female surfer Siska

Parallel to wave riding, and now back in Australia, Ruby works to support at risk youth, with her sights on exploring the best of what her big island home has to offer. 

She shares generously about the joys and adversities that have shaped and are shaping her path forward: the life changing joy of a magic board, travelling humbly,  keeping an eye out for gurus in the Himalayas, and the only core surfer she's ever met. 

 

Send us Fan Mail

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray   + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

...

Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:

Patagonia Australia 

Alkaway

The Sunglass Fix

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.


There’s a particular kind of life shaped by time spent in and around the ocean, one that blends saltwater with a deeper perspective. Hosted by lifelong surfers and storytellers Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich, the Waterpeople Podcast explores exactly that. Each conversation is less an interview and more a shared dive with guides who know the water intimately-from scientists and activists to adventurers and artists. You’ll hear firsthand accounts that stretch beyond simple adventure tales, touching on how a connection to the sea informs everything from ecological stewardship and community building to the pure, playful joy of a wave. This podcast serves as a meeting point for a far-flung tribe, weaving together themes of inclusivity, humour, and what it means to live thoughtfully along the coast. It’s about the stories that emerge when people are truly at home in the aquatic world, offering listeners a sense of place and connection within a global ocean community. Tune in for genuine, meandering talks that feel like sitting around after a long day in the swell, where the topics are as vast and shifting as the sea itself.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 133

Waterpeople Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Cyrus Sutton: Perceiving Pattern [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:44:31
How do we apply pattern literacy learned from ocean life to the land? What have we learned from our historically colonial approach to surf culture? How do we move ourselves and our culture forward in regenerative ways th…
Welcome to Season Three [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:48
Listen with Lauren L. Hill, Dave Rastovich and Waterpeople's sound engineer/ in-house musician Shannon Sol Carroll as they sit down to recalibrate for another 21 episodes of conversation with some of the world's most ade…
Mary Setterholm: So Then I Prayed [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:06:37
One year after founding the Women's International Surfing Association in 1975, Mary Setterholm bought a bus ticket and left surfing behind -- her community and the culture she was helping to shape. Mary is a graduate of…
Thomas Campbell: Chasing Sensation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:23:55
Artists take us to other worlds; they reflect or refract the beauty in ours, or not. They transport us and stretch us and dream for those of us who have forgotten. We are the artful animal -- and perhaps we need art more…
Jaimal Yogis: Inner Ocean [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:15
How do we navigate our own inner ocean -- the fear and anxiety and unhelpful fixations ? Student of Zen Buddhism, and surfer, Jaimal Yogis shares some of his learnings from a life committed to riding waves and cultivatin…
Cetacean Culture with Dr. Liz Hawkins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:02
Dr. Liz Hawkins is a marine ecologist who has spent more than 20 years researching cetaceans. Liz is the founder and CEO of Dolphin Research Australia, where she heads up research and education about the social systems,…
Tory Strange: A Place to Stay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:58
At least once a day for 36 years, Tory Strange has provided a surf report for waterfolk in his hometown of St. Augustine, Fl. Waking most days to see the sunrise for the dawn patrol report, Tory has developed an especial…
Seaweedy Solutions with marine ecologist Dr. Pia Winberg [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:01
Dr. Pia Winberg is marine ecologist and entrepreneur. A fascination with the scientific properties of seaweed led her to a decades long career in both researching and implementing sustainable marine food production syste…
Paige Alms: Unfurling Fate [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:47
Two Time Big Wave World Champion Paige Alms was born in Canada. At age 7, a life-altering trip completely changed the course for her family and set Paige on the path toward shaping modern big wave surfing. Paige is a co-…
Doing Death Well with Zenith Virago [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:59
Zenith Virago is founder of the Natural Death Care Centre, where she guides folks through the process of dying, death and bereavement. As Waterpeople, most of us dance the line with risk regularly, and we know how alive…