Alberta river surfer Angela Knox is embracing the cold

By Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In a gurgling tongue of blue, chilling glacial-fed waters splashing up against her rosy skin, Angela Knox is in her element — the cold.

It only took one family trip to Hawaii for a dream of surfing wild waves to take hold of Knox, but back in landlocked Alberta, the Kananaskis River was the last place the river surfer would’ve looked to satisfy her stoke.  

“Something spoke to me about surfing from early on,” said Knox, who has been cold water surfing for over a decade.

“I think I’ve always been enamored by that very outdoorsy, wild sort of culture.”

Living for pow days in Lake Louise as a snowboarder, dreams of catching waves still lingered and when a friend invited her to check out the obscure sport of river surfing, a new world opened up for her.

“I just threw myself into it,” she said.

“To find surfing in the Rockies, even though it was just random seasonal waves, it blew my mind. It changed my relationship with the rivers.”

Knox quickly became part of a fringe crew, chasing waves in the most unsuspecting pockets across landlocked North America.

“It was such a small group of people back then and it was just a really tight band of people that were so passionate about it, and we would drive 14 or 16 hours to check out a river wave,” she said.

“We drove to Saskatchewan once because someone said they had a river wave in a dam and it was a really terrible wave, but we just had a great time doing it.”

For many in the thrill-seeking group, snow, -10 Celsius and icy waters didn’t stop them from grabbing their boards, throwing on wetsuits and trekking down to the Mountain Wave — the most advanced standing wave on the Kananaskis River.

“One of them was like, ‘just wait, we’re gonna see you in the winter’ and I was like, ‘no, it’s too cold,’” said Knox.

Deciding to brave the elements one wintery day, Knox headed out for a solo sesh, thinking there was no way there would be anyone else on the water.

“I saw two, three cars in the parking lot and then walked down and then as soon as they saw me trudging down with my bag … everybody in the water, their arms went up and they were like, ‘yeah!’”

“Anybody who showed up was like a total warrior,” Knox said with a laugh.

With only a few standing waves to surf on at the time, most of them were seasonal and only surfable for a few weeks out of the year, said Knox.

“Some of the early adopters into river surfing, they ended up really applying for grants and doing the work and building the community into what it is and those are the folks at the Alberta River Surfing Association.”

“It was just awesome to see that come into bloom.”

As the sport continued to grow and waves were built, competitions popped up in an effort to put the niche activity on the map, including the annual river surf festival Slam the Kan.

Considering herself more of a “social surfer”, Knox was not interested in channeling her competitive side but encouraged by friends and often making the decision to compete the day of, she gave it a shot.

“Those were such challenges for me, but it made sense because I was out there surfing obsessively,” she said.

“I chose to go into competitions, even though it was way harder for me to surf and be visible in those competitions than it was to drive 16 hours and jump into a wave with hardly anyone around.”

Entering her first comp’ in 2017, for Knox it was never about beating her opponents but instead inspiring others to join the sport, especially women who weren’t as represented on the water at the time compared to men.

“I sort of wove the Wim Hof Method and wove showmanship into the competitions. I would wear my bathing suit for part of it to get rid of my nerves and I would train for it, and I would just try really hard because I didn’t want to disappoint,” Knox said.

“I just felt like I had to represent [women] in a way that was inspiring and so that was my motivation.”

Tying for gold in her first 2017 comp at Slam the Kan, Knox went on to win every year after from 2018 to 2020, often standing out from the wetsuit-clad crowd of surfers in her bathing suit. 

With a tight-knit community supporting her along the way, Knox recalls the friends who cheered her on and believed in her almost more than she did herself.

“The culture of river surfing was partly developed to get over the localism of ocean surfing and so they really stood true to that and were always so supportive and so generous,” Knox recalled.

“It was a really beautiful time, the early years in the river surfing world when it was still really intimate and raw and rugged.”

Embracing the cold 

It starts with a sharp stinging. Travelling up the toes and fingers until a stiffness sets in — a cry from our bodies for the relief of warmth.

Knox is no stranger to the feeling of cold, but instead of running from it, she leans in.

“I knew from being a doctor of Chinese medicine and from my time in China that … protecting yourself from the cold is just woven into Chinese culture and medical wisdom because the cold congeals and stagnates and slows everything down,” said Knox, who is now based out of Vancouver. 

Sinking her teeth into river surfing, catching waves became a year-round pursuit for Knox who would arrive at her office with hair still frozen from the surf.

“I had a number of people tell me about Wim Hof the Iceman. When I hear about something enough times, I’m like, ‘OK, just check it out,’” she said.

Created by Dutch extreme athlete and speaker, Wim Hof, the Wim Hof method combines breathing, mindset techniques and cold exposure as a way to improve mental and physical health.

“It brought together so many pieces that I had learned about in the last 20 years of being in alternative medicine [and] healing myself from an autoimmune disease such as oxygenating the bloodstream through the breath work and your mindset going into the cold,” Knox said.

“Now within a decade, you’ve seen it catch fire around the world because the effects are immediate and [cold water is] accessible to most people.”

Becoming the first certified female Wim Hof Method instructor in Canada, Knox took every opportunity to cold plunge after completing her course, often driving past Gap Lake or heading up to Spray Lakes in the middle of a workday, smashing the ice and going for a dip.

“It changed my life,” she said.

“Knowing that I can go in any body of water in up to -15 C anywhere in the world is so liberating for me. It’s a really cool feeling to know that you can merge with that beautiful landscape, you can be one with it by getting your skin right against the elements and breathing it in. It’s beautiful.”

Whether a cold shower or dip in the lake, Knox now integrates cold exposure into her daily routine, saying the benefits have been revolutionary.

“I feel younger and more vibrant in my fifties than I did in my thirties and using the cold and the breathwork in cold, they’re all just such pillars for health,” she said.

“It’s a lifestyle of vibrancy, awakeness [and] alertness.”

Earning the title of ice queen for the ease she displays in frigid environments, Knox says that consistent cold exposure also “builds mental resilience.”

“I’m very adapted to the cold,” she said.

“My mind already knows the outcome that I’m looking for and going for, so when you use this hardship or eustress, it’s called, it’s so rife with good chemistry that it really trains you to go through a stressful situation and get to the other side and feeling amazing is part of your reality.”

After years of teaching and dialing in her own method of leaning into the cold, Knox designed the Cold Revolution: A Radical Guide to Wellbeing — a 30-day cold plunging challenge in the form of a deck of cards.

“We go over breath work because there’s different breath work from preparing for the cold to actually entering the cold …  and then building your tolerance up and then each of the different expressions of cold therapy, whether it’s a cold shower or an ice bath or a cold plunge or a waterfall,” Knox said.

Emphasizing safety throughout, Knox wants to help others learn about the health benefits of cold exposure just as she has, whether it was dipping into glacial waters in the thick of winter or shredding waves with her skin right up against the elements.

“A cold practice done properly and built incrementally is life-changing and also very sustainable,” she said.

“Almost everybody in the world, other than the people with the contraindications, can, in fact, tolerate freezing cold temperatures for short amounts of time.”

Knox says the Cold Exposure Card Deck will soon be available in stores throughout the Bow Valley. For more information visit: instagram.com/coldrevolution.ca/