E189: 30-Tirement, Travel Tales & Mexican Surf Magic with Amber Walker

This week on The Evolving Adventure, I’m joined by Amber Walker — adventurer, surfer, author, holistic wellness practitioner, and my first international guest! Amber joins from Punta de Mita, Mexico, where she can literally see two surf breaks from her recording spot. We talk about growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, competitive swimming, qualifying for Boston, inventing her own “30-tirement,” selling her stuff, buying a one-way ticket to Australia, running around New Zealand, surviving a crazy incident in Indonesia, and eventually finding her way into a completely different rhythm of life in Mexico.This episode is full of the kind of stories that make you want to pack a bag, trust your gut, and maybe rethink the whole “I’ll live later” plan. Amber shares how solo travel helped her grow, why learning even a few words of the local language matters, what it means to enter a culture with respect, and how surfing became a form of floating meditation after years of pushing, training, and living in a state of hypervigilance. We also get into dance, play, intuition, chronic illness, faith, Peru, Barbados, wild birthday challenges, trail running through a blizzard, and that beautiful middle place where adventure becomes healing.You'll want to focus later in the episode when Amber and I talk about a number of our bucket list places. You can find Amber at @originwellnessclinic and @breakfreefromchronicillness, and you can find me at @cactusmoose and @theevolvingadventure. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts — this one is for anyone craving more adventure, more trust, more play, and a little less grind.