Alexandra Kolla achieves more things in a day than some people do in a week.
She typically wakes up at 5 or 6 a.m. to go for a four-hour surf session. This is followed by a trip to the University of California, Santa Cruz campus to give a lecture – Kolla is a tenured professor in quantum computing – or a couple of hours of research work from home, a second surf session, and more work in the evening.
There will also be at least one gym session at some point in the day.
This meticulous schedule is only broken on some rare special weeks when Kolla takes part in surfing or bodybuilding competitions.
So, what’s her secret for sticking to what sounds like the most ambitious New Year’s resolution for years on end?
Unconditional love for what she does – and a healthy dose of stubbornness mixed in.
A native of Greece, Kolla started surfing at 20 years old, which is more than double what is generally considered a cut-off age for surfers who want to succeed at a competitive level. Now 43, she is determined to prove that old adage wrong by becoming the first Greek surfer to qualify for the Olympic Games.
“So many people love surfing, and they start late in life, and they’re like, ‘It’s not possible’. And I want to show them it’s possible,” Kolla told Olympics.com. “I want to show people that it’s possible to actually be a good surfer and start in your 20s or 30s or 40s, whenever you start. It’s possible. And you can do it.”
How a casual surfing lesson took Alexandra Kolla’s life in a new direction
A native of Greece, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Kolla was always completely at ease in the water. Stepping onto a surfboard, however, was an entirely different story.
She took her first surfing lesson after moving to California to study for her mathematics PhD at U.C. Berkeley. The lesson was meant to be a one-time activity, but after paddling out, Kolla was hooked.
“It was the place where I could find myself,” Kolla said. “I was a very high-achieving person from family pressure, and being out in the water made me be myself without the pressure.”
In true high-achiever fashion, Kolla ultimately ended up putting that pressure on herself when she decided that she not only wanted to surf for fun, but to surf like a pro.
And so, she quit her job, packed her bags, and set off to find the best waves around the globe.
“I travelled around the world just to surf, to learn how to surf because I was so bad at it,” Kolla recalled with a laugh.
For a year, Kolla flitted from one surf spot to another, picking up odd jobs in restaurants or kitchens along the way to earn some cash.
Fast forward 10 years, and Kolla now lives and works in Santa Cruz – the same place where she first tried surfing – and is a four-time ISA World Surfing Games competitor.
She and Eirini Tsarpali are the first female surfers from Greece to compete internationally, making their debut at the 2022 ISA World Surfing Games in Huntington Beach, USA. At the 2025 edition, Kolla became the first Greek woman to advance from the main round.
Alexandra Kolla: An athlete of all trades
“Competitive surfer” is just one of many hats Kolla wears daily.
In addition to her surfing career, Kolla is also a professional bodybuilder and tenured university professor in theoretical computer science and quantum computing.
Kolla comes to the campus two to three times per week to give lectures. Outside of that, she does research work from her home office and surfs during the breaks – sometimes even with her students.
Bodybuilding competitions crop up several times per year in her calendar too. To be ready for them, and to stay fit in general, Kolla usually spends an hour in the gym, five days a week.
While her gym workouts are often gruelling, Kolla says they are the easy part of being a pro bodybuilder. The hard part is the diet. There are strict calorie counts, and the menu – chicken, rice, turkey, vegetables and oatmeal – can get repetitive.
Sticking to such a uniform, oil-free regime is even trickier when Kolla is travelling to surfing competitions, as was the case at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
“The last time I was in El Salvador, I had a (bodybuilding) competition the week after or something,” Kolla said. “So I literally cooked all my food, froze it, put it in a backpack, brought it here, and microwaved my meals all the time.”
Fortunately for Kolla, that strict diet is only necessary during competition season, and she usually tries to pack all her bodybuilding events into a two-month timeframe.
While surfing is her main focus, she has seen progress in her bodybuilding results recently too. In May, she got her best pro placing yet when she finished fourth at the IFBB Professional Miami Pro – Masters Bikini.
Dashing between beaches, gyms, and lecture halls, Kolla has a packed schedule that could keep three people well occupied. Still, she has no plans to cut anything out of it.
“Surfing, I’m never going to drop. It’s my lifestyle,” Kolla said. “My job pays the bills, so I don’t want to drop it either. Bodybuilding, I feel like I get bored at the gym without having a goal, and I know the gym is necessary at older age to be an athlete. So instead of just going to the gym, I happen to connect it with bodybuilding competitions.”
The catch-up game: “I’m 12 years old in surfing years”
Put Kolla on a big board and have her ride down a 30-foot Maverick, and she will be fully in her element. With her physical strength and confident swimming strokes, the bigger the wave, the better for the Greek athlete.
But shortboard surfing – the Olympic discipline in the sport – is where things get tricky.
“I’m comfortable in big surf. I’m a really good swimmer. I’m very strong,” Kolla said. “I thought I was a good surfer, but then I got to a shortboard, and it took me six months to stand up on it. But I persisted. I was like, ‘I need to learn this, I am going to do this’.”
Kolla is working with two coaches to improve her surfing technique. France-based Garrett Lane started coaching her four years ago. She sends him videos for feedback, and they also meet in person three to four times per year to surf in different spots around the world.
In 2024, Kolla started working with a California-based coach to help her with wave selection. Her training also includes monthly trips to the wave pool – three times a year with a coach.
The intense training is a necessity for Kolla, who is playing the catch-up game, having started the sport at a comparatively late age.
While her technique is solid, Kolla struggles to read the waves the way that surfers who started earlier do. They can be looking at the same wave, but whereas Kolla will be waiting for the section to present itself, the more experienced surfers will know where to go to make the section happen.
“I spent my whole childhood being pro at math, like those kids spent being pro at surfing,” Kolla said. “It’s only this year that I feel like I’m doing the same sport as them. The last [World Surfing Games], I was like, ‘I don’t understand how they’re surfing like this’. Now I understand.
“My coach laughs, and he’s like, ‘You’re now age 12 because people start at eight and in four years, they’re 12. So now you have to compare yourself with the 12-year-old girls’.”
Her “surfing age” gap does not discourage Kolla. Quite the opposite. The multi-talented athlete is determined to catch up and is even working to add aerials into her surfing.
Her ultimate goal is to reach the LA 28 Olympic Games. For Kolla, this is not only about achieving a national milestone as the first Greek surfer at the Olympics, but also to show others that starting the sport late is no reason to give up on big dreams.
“I know so many adults that started late in life, that love the sport, spend their whole lives with it, and they never think they can get there,” Kolla said. “I really want to be the one, if I can, to show them that there’s a way. It’s hard. It’s going to be a long road, but there’s a way.”