Lukita Maxwell Takes Us On Her Morning Surf Routine

One of the reasons Lukita Maxwell loves surfing is because she can’t bring her phone along with her. For a busy rising star living in Los Angeles, the ocean is a guaranteed place of peace, one of the only spaces where she can totally unplug from work. Anyone who’s ever seen Blue Crush knows that, despite achey muscles, crack-of-dawn wakeup calls, salty eyes, and long drives to the beach — there’s no escape like paddling out.

“I needed something so tangibly separate from the rest of everything to go and do,” she tells NYLON. “I got addicted to that feeling. I literally got addicted to the feeling of sitting in the water for two hours and not looking at anything.”

Maxwell’s got a lot to unplug from right now: She is one of the stars of Shrinking, Apple TV+’s charming dark comedy starring Jason Segal and Harrison Ford, which airs its season one finale on March 24 — and she’s got a slew of projects lined up, including the psychological drama The Young Wife, starring Kiersey Clemons and Leon Bridges, which just premiered at South by Southwest, and a horror film from Blumhouse, the masterminds between Get Out and M3GAN.

“My entire house is a work zone,” Maxwell says. “So that's what I mean when I need to completely remove myself from everything and literally throw myself in the ocean.”

Ahead, Maxwell shares her morning surf photo diary and talks about how she got into surfing, her Love Island obsession, and her favorite things about living in LA.

How long has your morning surf routine been a part of your life?

I started seriously surfing when I moved from New York to LA to start shooting Shrinking. I had lived in LA before, so I had some friends that surfed, but I didn't know how to surf. I didn't know how to wake up early. I didn't know how to move my muscles. Anyways, I started making it a regular routine just when I started shooting the show. I needed something to escape into. I just loved the feeling of going out in the water and not being next to my phone, and being isolated or going out with your friends is also really fun once you know what you're doing and you don't look like a total idiot.

Probably the first month or two that I was surfing, I couldn't even really stand up. I just was going out for the habit of that removal of self from my busy world, and I needed something so tangibly separate from the rest of everything to go and do. I got addicted to that feeling. I literally got addicted to the feeling of sitting in the water for two hours and not looking at anything. And then I just kept going out, kept going out, kept going out, and it started to click and now it's just, that's relief.

How many times a week do you surf?

It depends. In the summer, I'll probably be out five days a week if I can, just depending on work. When I was shooting Shrinking, I was probably going probably three times a week. The weeks that I wasn't working, I'd go maybe five days a week. And I live on the east side of LA, so I make the hour and a half trek, sometimes two hours with traffic drive to get out there.

What else do you do to unwind?

I watch Love Island UK. You know that thing when people talk about how you should not work in your bedroom, so you keep your bedroom or your bed space, like a chill zone and you psychologically understand it as a decompression space? I can't have that. My entire house is a work zone. So that's what I mean when I need to completely remove myself from everything and literally throw myself in the ocean.

What else have you enjoyed about living in LA?

I like that I can separate work and life in LA. I don't know if that's a cheesy. When I'm living in New York, everything molds into one. In LA, also specifically with Shrinking as a job because we were shooting on the Warner Brothers lot, I think, and because I had relatively regular-ish hours, especially for shooting a TV show, I felt some sense of routine, which made me able to separate my work life and my home life, which is so important to me, especially in LA because if you don't have that balance, then I feel like you get sucked into this vortex of either you are never home because you're constantly trying to escape, or you are always home and you are in a hole. There’s no in between. But I found my balance.

Do you have any other projects that are coming up that you're excited about?

I have a movie that was directed by Tayarisha Poe that just premiered at South by Southwest called The Young Wife, starring Kiersey Clemons and Leon Bridges. I'm very excited for the world to see that movie. It's psychedelic and weird and psychological and, I don't know, I love that movie. I just saw it for the first time and I was like, "What is this?" Then the other movie that I'm excited about, I was lucky enough to shoot a Blumhouse horror film with Sony called, They Listen, where I'm playing John Cho and Katherine Waterson's oldest child.