Filipa Leandro was born in Portugal and discovered her passion for surfing at a young age, becoming one of Portugal’s first female surfers. After competing in surf contests for 10 years and getting a degree in Diplomacy, Filipa travelled to Hawaii where she worked on her thesis for a Masters in Human Ecology.

Upon returning to Portugal, Filipa got married and welcomed her first son to the world. Over the next several years Filipa lived between Portugal and California, and brought two more beautiful children to the world. All three grew to share her passion for surfing. Filipa became a surf teacher, and soon realised that surfing could help children gain confidence and self-esteem, and help them to build trust with people and be more positive.

Combined with a passion for writing, these experiences inspired Filipa to create a new collection of books for kids: “Come Surf with Pipa, Jaime and Kika”. Based on real life, these fun surf stories empower kids, giving them the tools for a happy, positive, and healthy lifestyle.

The present collection follows the adventures of Filipa’s family in the surfing world, while empathizing culture and important values such as family, sustainability, respect, friendship, sports, the tenacity and pursuit of dreams, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The idea to write this collection came in 2012, while Filipa was giving surf classes to kids at a summer camp, inspired by meeting children from different backgrounds and observing how much they gained from learning a new sport. In August 2015, fellow surfer Sofia Oliveira offered to illustrate the books, and in November 2015 the 3 first were launched.

Filipa enjoys doing book tours and educating children about some of the key topics covered in the books. She has travelled worldwide from Australia to Hawaii.