A life less ordinary with Cyclone Lucy Nadebaum

I’m always intrigued by interesting people that do amazing things and Lucy Nadebaum is one of those people. Not only does she fly helicopters for a living, she dives, shoots crazy slab waves and more recently, has started surfing them to!

With only a few years, and a handful of sessions under her belt, Lucy has charged some of the world’s most hectic waves on a bodyboard she borrowed from her partner, big wave hell man, Shane Ackerman.

She has a unique approach to conquering fear and has made it her mission to master the art of bodyboarding and living life to the fullest.

I was able to chat with Lucy about her journey into bodyboarding and a life that revolves around the ocean and chasing swells. Take it away Lucy…

Lucy, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into ocean activities, diving, photography, bodyboarding? 

I grew up on the Yorke Peninsula, SA - only a few minutes’ drive from a mellow surf break known as Lizards.  I’ve been stand up surfing from ever since I can remember, and absolutely loved it, although I was always timid in larger surf (over 2ft haha) and because of this I never really progressed my skill with stand up surfing. I went away to boarding school in Adelaide in grade 10, and then at age 18 went away and got my helicopter license and pursued a career flying. I still loved the ocean - but grew apart from it dedicating all of my time to my career. 

I’d always dreamt as a kid id go and watch Teahupo'o and Shipstern's from the channel in a boat like you’d see in the photos.  I’d also always dreamt of getting barrelled, but knew my skill and confidence was never there on a surfboard.  But I held onto those dreams!  

About 3 years ago I went from a full time Job to an awesome casual job that I currently work in, and suddenly had way more free time than I’d ever had and started getting back into the ocean.  I started stand up surfing again at home in SA and loved taking photos of the surf for something else to do.  Not long after - I met Shane (Ackerman).  He was bodyboarding, diving all the time, and chasing some crazy waves.  

The way he lived his life just had me in awe.  I started hanging out with him in my time off, travelling over to NSW to meet up. I’d take photos when he went surfing and when the waves were flat he would take me diving for crays.  I hadn’t dived at all before, and it was such a challenge mentally at first. The thought of diving deep and holding your breath was so daunting, but I put a lot of trust in Shane and just tried to push past being uncomfortable because I wanted to be able to do it with ease the way he did so badly!

I started having a go on the bodyboard purely because I didn’t have a surfboard in NSW, and just wanted to go out and surf with my new mates that were all bodyboarding.  I remember thinking, how hard could it be! Turns out it’s harder than it looks haha. But, I started pulling into barrels! Not riding them because I couldn’t even hold rail yet, but I got hooked on the possibility that I could actually start getting barrels and making them on this thing!

I started getting into filming only earlier this year.  I had filmed some of our adventures just on my phone and put a few little clips together, and thought stuff it, I’m travelling to all these amazing places with Shane, I'm going to get a decent camera and water housing and start filming properly!  It’s an awesome hobby I’ve taken up because I get a lot of downtime at work which means I have heaps of time to edit/play around with footage!

Lucy Charging somewhere in NSW, Photo: Ray Collins

Your partner is hell man Shane Ackerman?  Has he influenced your decision to start bodyboarding and jumping headfirst into some of the most hectic waves on the planet? 

Haha “hell" man!? try "puts me through hell" man hahaha!  

Shane has been a massive influence!  Like I mentioned earlier, swell over 2ft used to scare me!  I was comfortable surfing small waves, and pretty content not bursting that bubble!  Shane’s whole mindset and approach towards life is so unique, and it’s really admirable. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and laughs at the “worst case scenario” in a situation as if it’s nothing to worry about.  I think being around good people with a positive mindset like that just gives you so much confidence, even if your skill isn’t there… 

I remember only a couple months into hanging around Shane, he took me to one of his favourite waves which just happens to be a pretty heavy offshore bommie..  It’s a 2km paddle out so I paddled out a second board for him and was just planning on watching him and his mate surf from the channel.  It was 6-8ft barrels with the odd 10ft coming though, and literally one other guy out!  After watching Shane catch about 20 waves like a kid in a playground, I started mocking him telling him to get deeper and so on, to which his reply was “it’s your turn next”.  I laughed and just thought whatever I’ ll show you! I thought about what would happen if I actually caught a wave and I knew I’d just wipe out, the wipeout would only be 10 seconds max and then probably just pop up in the deeper water.  It didn’t seem so bad when I broke it down like that!

So I paddled out to him and started catching waves, just smaller safer ones coming through (still way bigger than anything id ever paddled before!)  We were both sitting waiting for another set when a bigger lump of water approaches.  Shane says “go if you want” to which I replied “uh thats a big one” and Shane says “well if you’re not going im going!”  And I wasn’t going to let that happen!  I turned and started kicking, thinking to myself "don’t pull back!" (mind you this is like my 3rd time on a bodyboard haha)!  I managed to get just under the lip of this like 8ft wave and just went top to bottom and sucked over the falls, and came up with a broken finger, which I’ve since had to get two surgeries on!  Shane had some explaining to do to my mum hahaha!

This is that wave!  Our mate Alex Pickering took his camera out and actually filmed the whole thing - you can just see Shane’s head over the back of the wave as he’s laughing at me!

You’re either shooting or booging at some of the worlds most hectic waves, shipsterns, chopes, skeleton bay just to name a few. Talk to me about fear and how you overcome it at breaks like this, particularly given your relative inexperience on a bodyboard. 

I feel like I missed out on a lot of years away from the ocean building my career and going to school, to the point where I beat myself up if I don’t make the most of an opportunity presented to me.  I still have fear every time I enter the ocean no matter what I’m doing, and sometimes I let it overcome me, but I hate that feeling you get when you don’t push yourself to do something you know you can do just because you were too scared. Because those opportunities don’t come every day - If you at least have a go, you have a chance of possibly getting the wave of your life!  It’s that anxiety I know I will get if I don’t do something that overrides my fear at times.  

A way I like to get myself in a good mindset is to make a joke out of what I am doing (learnt that one from Shane). Because let’s be honest, I’ve got limited skill on the bodyboard still, so it’s a bit of a joke!  The second I consider what I’m doing “serious” or “scary”  I’m already thinking I can’t do it.  If I can laugh about it, embrace the wipeout or worst-case scenario (without being ridiculous of course) I’m instantly having fun, and fear seems to be irrelevant to a point.  

Lastly, one saying that we always preach is “TIME IN THE WATER”. The more time I spend in the ocean the more I learn about how it works and also my own ability and limits, and having that knowledge is so important when you need to act in a high stress environment. 

You go on trips with Shane and other big name free surfers. What's the vibe like before a big swell. Do you find yourself being the only woman on these trips a lot of the time? 

Everyone's usually just pretty excited!  They’re constantly checking charts, or talking about how the conditions could be, or the cracker wave they got last time they were there, it’s just pure excitement!  You’ve turned up to a swell that might not happen every year or even for the next 5-10 years, and maybe you’ll get the wave of a lifetime!

So far, Ive been the only girl in the crew that I have traveled with.  But I am mostly travelling with guys who are being paid to be there and surf (except Shane haha). Not everyone can leave work or life commitments at the drop of a hat to chase a swell, nor can they afford it!  I am lucky that I put in the hard yards with my career when I was young, and I am now able to work less and enjoy travelling around, and Shane's the same!  

When you turn up to these swells you sometimes get the odd woman charging which is sick, but there’s just not many girls into big wave/slab surfing.

Lucy at work flying a chopper from Adelaide to Darwin with Shane’s sister Tegan

You obviously love the ocean. Out of all the activities you do, which one do you enjoy the most? Do you think the skills you gather from each activity translate into the other activities? 

The activity I enjoy most changes so often I really couldn’t pick one.  Depends what conditions we have had lately! If there’s been good dive conditions and I've been diving I’m usually just frothing on that, and the same with surfing! At the moment (after skeleton I think haha) I am just hellbent on bodyboarding. It’s all I want to do.  I’ve started actually making barrels and driving and holding rail, and I’m obsessed with just critiquing my style and getting better at the moment! 

They absolutely all tie in to each other though which is awesome.  Like I said earlier, it’s all time in the water!  Learning to be calm and holding your breath for diving translates into being calm in a wipeout, and filming larger waves helps build my own confidence in larger surf conditions for bodyboarding.  It’s all bloody awesome! 

To date, where is your favourite place to travel, shoot and ride waves? 

Skeleton was pretty bloody cool for surfing! I didn’t even go there with intentions of surfing I thought it would be too heavy for me (it probably was haha) and I’d just film - but I just blew my expectations of myself out of the water. Again, I think it was one of those moments in life where I’d beat myself up if I didn’t at least have a go - I was in Africa at skeleton for goodness sake! 

My experience at Shipsterns earlier in the year was out of this world, and that holds the award for fav wave to shoot at the moment! 

Lucy getting barrelled at skeleton, Frame: Dave Fox

What's next for cyclone Lucy in the sport of bodyboarding/surf photography? 

I really do not know what’s next.   At the moment I just want to keep bodyboarding as much as possible and when it gets too big for me I’ll just jump on the camera! There’s still a few waves and places I’d like to visit and shoot, but if I can build my skill in bodyboarding, I might even be able to surf at some of these places and get the most out of the opportunity!  So I feel like that’s a priority at the moment! 

Want to follow Cyclone Lucy on her adventures? Check out her Instagram @cyclone.lucy