Alicia King grew up in Sydney’s Inner Western suburbs and was drawn to water from a young age. She spent her adolescence trawling up and down swimming pools across Australia in pursuit of competitive swimming glory, but her fondest memories are of journeying to the Cronulla beaches on a Sunday morning in the back of her parents’ sky blue Ford Fairlaine to surf club nippers. It was here she found the ocean and the joy of water in motion.
Whilst she didn’t hit the heights she aspired to in the pool, she was an accomplished swimmer winning State and National Age Titles and placed third at the Australian Open Championships in the 200m Butterfly, as well as winning the Cadet surf race at the Australian Surf Lifesaving championships in Kurrawa. She still maintains butterfly — like life — is all about rhythm and flow: when you try overly hard and force things, you find yourself bobbing up and down in one spot.
Whilst completing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy in her early twenties she moved to the Northern beaches and learnt to surf together with a bloke (who is now her husband.) After having her first child she began to write and has since had work published in Surfing World, White Horses and Sea Together magazines.
She continues to live on Sydney’s Northern beaches with her husband, three children and two dogs and considers herself a lifelong student of the sea and life.
Her father always said ‘Alicia— you want to know the ins and outs of a cat’s arse’ and not much has changed. She holds on to this curiosity and desire to understand.