If Hannah Walsh could, she’d probably trade her lungs for gills. The ocean has always been her second home—a place of freedom, movement, and inspiration. A former collegiate swimmer turned ocean lifeguard, bodysurfer, and award-winning surf cinematographer, Walsh’s life has followed the currents of her deep connection to water.
Growing up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Hannah spent her childhood summers surrounded by salt air and surfboards. She started bodysurfing as a kid, learning to ride waves the simplest way possible—with nothing but her body. “My passion for bodysurfing started not in the ocean but in a pool,” Hannah recalls. “I spent ten years as a competitive swimmer before moving to Costa Rica. Competitive swimming gave me the foundation I needed for bodysurfing, which I learned as a lifeguard in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.”
For Hannah Walsh, lifeguarding was more than a summer job, it was a gateway to understanding the ocean. “Lifeguards use bodysurfing as a safety skill, but also as a fun and simple way to catch waves,” she explains. “It was the lifeguarding community that inspired me to become a bodysurfer.” That same sense of community would continue to guide her journey as she ventured beyond Cape Cod’s beaches to warmer waters.
Hannah Walsh finds her place in the ocean
After college, Hannah moved to Costa Rica, where she spent four transformative years living, teaching, and creating by the sea. While working at a surf camp, she co-designed a bodysurfing curriculum. She also began exploring a new dimension of ocean life: documenting it through the lens of a camera. Her in-water photography and videography soon evolved into a passion that would define her career.
It was in Costa Rica’s picturesque surf that Hannah honed her skills as a cinematographer, blending her love of movement and storytelling. Her work captures the fluid grace of water and the athletes who move through it—surfers, swimmers, and bodysurfers alike. “I think of filmmaking as a natural extension of my time in the ocean,” she says. “It’s about feeling the rhythm of the waves and translating that into imagery and story.”
Her ocean cinematography soon gained attention within the surf and outdoor film world. She collaborated with organizations and brands such as The Changing Tides Foundation, Carve Designs, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and 1% for the Planet—all of whom share her passion for protecting the natural world.
In early 2025, Hannah returned to Costa Rica to co-host a weeklong bodysurfing retreat at Playa Grande. The retreat offered participants hands-on coaching in bodysurfing technique and ocean safety at one of the most beautiful surf breaks in Central America.
Today, Hannah Walsh lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where her relationship with water has taken on a colder form. As a cinematographer for Destination Canada, she continues to explore the intersection between storytelling and environment. When she’s not behind the camera, you can often find her frolicking in the icy Pacific Northwest.
Her latest short film, Skin Swimmer, offers a window into this world of cold-water immersion. Selected to screen at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, the film documents the growing community of open-water and ice swimmers who dive into frigid water year-round—often without wetsuits. “When I moved to Vancouver, I got more involved in the open water and ice swimming communities,” Hannah says. “That’s what my film Skin Swimmer is about: people swimming all year round with no wetsuit in glacial lakes.”
Through her films and photography, Hannah aims to make action sports more inclusive and to amplify stories that connect people to nature. Her message is simple yet profound: when we fall in love with the ocean—or any body of water—we’re more likely to protect it.
Hannah Walsh reminds us that the water isn’t just a place to play—it’s a place to belong.
