Jane McKenzie

JANE MCKENZIE is a financial advisor in Santa Cruz, California, with an office not far from the ocean where she regularly surfs. When asked what work she does, Jane responds that she, “Provides real interesting and cool people with wealth management and investment strategies that work for them and their families.”

Though Jane was born in Santa Monica, CA, she moved with her family to Santa Cruz when she was just four weeks old. When she was 8 years old her family moved to Hawaii, where they lived on a 58’ Kris Kraft cabin cruiser for three years in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor near Honolulu. Jane’s lived her whole life along a coastline somewhere, splitting time between Santa Cruz and the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

She moved back to Santa Cruz as a pre-teen with her mom and sister. But she spent summers with her dad on Oahu. Jane started surfing there, back when there were ‘real beach boys’. When she was just 8 years old and weighed about 60 pounds, her father put her onto a 10-foot surfboard that weighed 30 pounds. Since then she hasn’t looked back.

Jane is considered a pioneer of women’s surfing in the cold waters of the Santa Cruz surf scene. Three gorgeous surfboards, including a classic redwood long board, decorate the walls of her office. Tenacity and confidence were her calling cards, as Jane worked her way from Cowell’s beginner surf break, through Indicators into the lineup at Steamer Lane, traditionally guys ‘turf’, because of the big waves that break there during the winter months. Jane surfed the Lane when few women dared and soon garnered the respect of the surfing community.

Jane “the Lane” McKenzie, as she’s known among her fellow surfers, is President and Team Captain of the Santa Cruz Longboard Union, where she gives back to the community that shares her passion and joy of riding the waves.