Joe Rickabaugh lives and breathes surfing.
Rickabaugh, Pepperdine’s club surf team coach, said he’s been shredding since his parents sent him to surf camp in eighth grade — and hasn’t stopped since. Once he started surfing, he quit everything else and made it his livelihood.
“My whole life revolves around surfing,” Rickabaugh said. “I probably wouldn’t have anything if I didn’t surf. I don’t know where I would be, honestly.”
Noelle Alderton, senior surf team member, said it is evident that Rickabaugh’s life centers on surfing.
“Surfing has had the biggest, positive influence in his life of anything else,” Alderton said. “And to him, he wants to share that joy with his community. Surfing is Joe’s way of relating with people.”
Surfing serves stability
Rickabaugh lost his house in the 2018 Woolsey Fire that burned almost 100,000 acres of land from Simi Valley to Malibu.
“It was very traumatic,” Rickabaugh said. “I guess I just thought that it was going to be fine but it wasn’t. I got a little off course for a while.”
The day before the fire, Pepperdine undergraduate student, Alaina Housley, was killed in a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill — a restaurant Rickabaugh frequented.
Throughout all these challenges, Rickabaugh said he always had surfing and its supportive community to lean on — as people donated boards and wetsuits to replace the ones he lost in the fire.
“Surfing was the one thing that never changed throughout that,” Rickabaugh said. “I always still had surfing no matter what.”
Connecting with nature
Although nature took his home, Rickabaugh said his favorite part about surfing is being in touch with Mother Nature.
“When you’re surfing, it’s just you,” Rickabaugh said. “There’s no social. There’s no phone. There’s no politics. There’s nothing like that. It’s just you in the ocean.”
Rickabaugh’s appreciation for nature is one of Alderton’s favorite things about him, she said.
“He focuses on the beauty of life, which I appreciate,” Alderton said. “The simplicity of just being in the sun, in nature, in the ocean, is something that brings such fulfillment.”
Rickabaugh taught Alderton to view surfing as something that gives life, even during big competitions. She said this new perspective is just one of the ways Rickabaugh pushes the entire team to grow.
“Joe is living simply in a way that just acknowledges that life is the things that bring you joy,” Alderton said. “And he lives that out.”
Coaching the Pepperdine club surf team
Rickabaugh brought his passion and knowledge for surfing to Pepperdine in 2021. Rickabaugh said a co-worker he lifeguarded with got him the head coach position, and he was excited to be involved with a local school since he grew up in the area.
Alderton is very grateful to have Rickabaugh as her coach.
“Joe is the best coach I’ve ever had, and I have had a lot of surf coaches in the past,” Alderton said.
Roman Lange, first-year club surf team member, agreed with Alderton, and said Rickabaugh is one of the reasons he is on the team.
“Part of the reason why I enjoy it is because he’s the coach for it,” Lange said. “He is very, very caring, very loving of everyone on [the] team. He appreciates surfing in and of itself.”
Rickabaugh would be at the beach in 50-mile-per-hour winds or when it’s pouring rain if it meant supporting his team, Alderton said.
“He is so dedicated in the way that he is the first one on the beach, he’s the last one to leave,” Alderton said.
Surfing can be an individual sport, Alderton said, but Rickabaugh emphasizes the value of teamwork and supporting one another.
“Our team tries to band together and really support each other through our heats, which I think Joe has encouraged strongly,” Alderton said.
Creating waves of impact
As a first-year, Lange said he was nervous to join the surf team but is very glad he did.
“Joe is the broadest horizon,” Lange said. “He saw my potential and pushed me 100%. He has great eyes and is a great dude.”
As a senior, this is likely Alderton’s last year doing competitive surfing. While this ending is bittersweet, she said she is glad it is Rickabaugh that she is closing it out with.
Outside of being a coach, Alderton said Rickabaugh inspires her in her daily life.
“He’s just not afraid to be who he is and express himself,” Alderton said. “I just think he embodies someone who knows who he is and isn’t afraid to share that with the world.”
Rickabaugh inspires her to do the same, she said.
“He definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone and just reminds me to be unapologetically Noelle,” Alderton said.
Rickabaugh continues to inspire those he comes in contact with, and he said he has no plans of changing who he is.
“Literally everything in my future has surfing involved in it in one way, shape or form,” Rickabaugh said. “I love living the dream and just like living in the moment, not getting so caught up in what just happened and what’s going to happen.”
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