Surfing Her Way To Success: The Paradoxical Life of Jesse Kamm
All photos courtesy of Jesse Kamm
Jesse Kamm’s success as a self-made businesswoman and creative is impressive on its own, but what makes her remarkable is her paradoxical lifestyle. She has one foot in two contrasting worlds: one being the fast-paced-don’t-stop world of business, the other being the go-with-the-flow world of surfing known for its iconoclasts and society dropouts. And she is dedicated to both.
Now a sustainable clothing designer widely sought after for her simple, high quality, and timeless designs,Jesse grew up in rural Illinois. Her father was a talented guitar player, and her mother was a ceramicist. When she was young, her parents bought some land in the middle of a cornfield, where they built Jesse’s childhood home with the help of some books checked out from the local library. Her childhood was idyllic. Her family lived simply, but on their own terms. They valued free time over everything else, and more important than any promotions they were offered was making time at home with family.
“In America, from a very young age we’re taught to work hard and push and push, and to want. We’re taught to want more, want bigger…I was raised in a house where that was not the driving force, it was more about having time, and time in nature.” Her parents instilled a value for freedom into her, and it has remained a driving force in determining how she lives her life and builds her career. “I learned a lot from my parents, they were an incredible example for how to live a nice life.”
For Jesse, living a nice life means having free time for surfing and leisure. She first learned to surf from her now-husband after moving to California. Around the same time, she began building her clothing brand. As her own boss, she was able to build her career around her passion for surfing. She structured her business so that she could work for nine months of the year, and then leave her job behind and spend the summers surfing in Panama. In the early days before she had a team to keep things running in her absence, her website said, “gone surfing, be back in August.” Now when they spend their summers in Panama, they live in their off-the grid home that Jesse and her husband hand-built using the very same two books her parents consulted when building their home in Illinois.
Her time in Panama gives her the space to slow down, “clean the canvas” of her design mind, and find inspiration through connecting back with nature. “I often say that when I’m going to surf, I’m going to church. It’s the place that I feel closest to whatever it is that is out there, especially when the waves are really big. I feel this awe with our universe. It’s so special and it’s so magic.”
Jesse is committed to carving out time in her life for her passions and to maintain connection with nature because for her, life is about more than just work – a notion that seems obvious but is often forgotten in fast-paced American culture. “I think it's weird that we are only defined by our work…my life, it's not only about my work. I dedicate myself to so many things; I dedicate myself to my family, I dedicate myself to my sport, I dedicate myself to my work, I dedicate myself to arranging my home - I'm into aesthetics and putting things just so - these are all things that fill my cup and bring me so much joy.”
