Adam Bonvin wanted one thing: to surf at home. So he did the impossible and created his own wave in Switzerland.

Adam is a surfer, a musician, and an entrepreneur who grew up in the Swiss Alps — skiing, snowboarding, skating — until a surf camp in southwest France at age 12 changed everything. At 18, he had an idea. At 25, it was done. Alaïa Bay is a surf lagoon sitting at the foot of the Alps in Sion, Switzerland, generating up to 1,000 waves an hour, year round. It drew 200,000 visitors in its first year, and what started as a single wave pool is now an action sports group redefining what a four-season mountain destination can look like.

In this episode, Maya sits down with Adam to talk about what it actually takes to build something from nothing in a place where nothing like it has ever existed before. From the benefits of naiveté, to the price of making a dream come true, and why when it comes to experiences, every day is a new day. They also talk about surfing as a life philosophy, what it means to teach yourself to love the paddle, and why sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is often the most obvious: just start.

Learn more about Alaïa Bay: www.alaia.ch

All of the music in this episode is from Adam's band, Boy Amor.

Track List:

• 00:01:14 — The Surfer
• 00:09:38 — Want to Feel Alive
• 00:28:43 — In My Mind
• 00:34:43 — Feel my Heart
• 00:43:09 — Love it When I Need It (Feat. Bipolar Sunshine)
• 01:00:00 — Sexy Eyes

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White Water is a podcast about creative urgency and the magical things that happen when we 'ride the wave' of life.

Hosted by Maya Guice, business storyteller and Founder of Panakin Studios, each episode features candid stories of tenacity and grit from individuals leading creative ventures that span industries, mediums, and borders. If you've got an idea and don't know where to start, come hang out with us in the white water!

Panakin Studios is an interdisciplinary shop of thinkers and doers. Medium-agnostic, we're half think-tank, half content studio, creating a whole machine that produces new stories for smart audiences. www.panakin.co

What separates the brands that hold from the ones that quietly fall apart?

Maya has spent her career as a brand strategist asking exactly that question — and the answer isn't the logo, the messaging, or the campaign. It's whether the logic running through all of it actually holds together. In other words, it's the glue, not the parts.

And most brands, she's found, are missing it.

In this bonus episode, Maya reads her essay on cohesion, the one thing that turns a name into meaning, a product into a promise, and a point of view into something people actually believe. Because confusion, no matter how beautifully packaged, never converts.

Read the essay on Medium.

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White Water is a podcast about creative urgency and the magical things that happen when we 'ride the wave' of life.

Hosted by Maya Guice, business storyteller and Founder of Panakin Studios, each episode features candid stories of tenacity and grit from individuals leading creative ventures that span industries, mediums, and borders. If you've got an idea and don't know where to start, come hang out with us in the white water!

Panakin Studios is an interdisciplinary shop of thinkers and doers. Medium-agnostic, we're half think-tank, half content studio, creating a whole machine that produces new stories for smart audiences. www.panakin.co