Amazing Grace: She was Born to Live with Ann Myra

For nearly a decade, Ann Myra trained and dreamed of competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race, the legendary open-ocean sailing race from California to Hawaii. An athlete and adventurer who spent ten years as the head surf instructor at UCLA, Ann was no stranger to the ocean—or to pushing herself physically and mentally beyond her limits.

But during a qualifying “feeder” race along the California coast, that dream took a terrifying turn. A devastating sailing accident became a near-death experience and changed the course of Ann’s life. She suffered a severe head injury and was airlifted by helicopter for emergency brain surgery, beginning a recovery that would take years. The Transpac remains unfinished—a bucket-list dream she may still return to one day—but surviving the accident gave her an entirely different journey to complete.
In this talk, Ann shares the extraordinary story behind her memoir, Amazing Grace: the years of preparation, the accident that nearly took her life, and what she discovered through survival and recovery. It is a story about adventure, resilience, unfinished dreams, and the unexpected ways our lives can change when the journey we planned suddenly becomes something very different.

About the Author
Ann Myra is an athlete, author, sailor, surfer, skier, environmentalist, and lifelong advocate for the Earth. For ten years, she served as head surf instructor at UCLA and later spent nearly a decade training toward her goal of competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race from California to Hawaii. A near-fatal sailing accident during a race along the California coast transformed both that dream and her life. She recounts the experience and the journey that followed in her memoir, Amazing Grace.

This program was organized by Reymundo Perez #1219.