Standing on the beach nearly 30 years ago, Marialidia Marcotulli watched surfers emerge from the water with what she could only describe as a glow. They had gained something out there beyond the break that remained, for her, a mystery—until she became one of them.
She began at a surfing school for women, then spent months in the brisk and unforgiving Pacific. Eventually, she made her way to the swells of Bolinas Bay.