Supermodel Carolyn Murphy drives a pickup truck. In it, she keeps her trusty surfboard and Patagonia wetsuit made out of renewable natural rubber and wool. And although, following our photo shoot, the Long Island weather is not the best – the water is so cold that she can’t feel her fingers – Murphy is determined to paddle around for a while, just to experience the water.

“It’s like you walk down the beach and you start taking in deep breaths,” the 43-year-old says a few days later in New York. “The sun is shining, you feel your shoulders drop, and you exhale. I’m just very fortunate to know that that’s what I need. And when I’m surfing, it’s definitely my sweet spot.”

Murphy, who started modeling in 1993 as a teenager, had her first surfing experience when she took a trip to Costa Rica in 1997 with some girlfriends. She ended up staying for months, escaping the frenetic fashion world for a time. “I was so in love with Costa Rica, so in love with the ocean,” she remembers. “I was so in love with the feeling that it gave me; it was such a healthy separation from what I was doing with modeling.”

While other famous faces tend to broadcast their philanthropic interests, Murphy has been a quiet advocate for the oceans for years, working for under-the-radar organizations such as Waves for Water. “The ocean is as much to us and the air we breathe as the forest is,” she points out. “So you have to take that into consideration, and that it’s absorbing more than a quarter of the CO2 emissions.” She cites the area in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii where there are over 80,000 tons of floating plastic waste. “I get really overheated talking about it, it infuriates me,” she says passionately.

As you would expect, she has long been conscientious about staying away from plastic. “I haven’t used a plastic grocery bag or even a paper bag in years; I keep canvas bags in my car,” she says. “I’ve got my produce bags and my bulk bags – they’re all made of linen.” She uses bamboo toothbrushes and an old-fashioned, reusable stainless-steel razor that “lasts forever”. Recently, she wrote a note to a major toilet-paper manufacturer, asking them if they could stop wrapping their recycled paper in plastic.

It’s a pleasure to see a model at the very top of her game – at the top of the entire game – in her 40s. “I think at the end of the day we want relatability. Women make up over 80% of the consumer market; we shop. And it’s not like we keel over after a certain age – we’re shopping for our families, our children, our household. So why shouldn’t I still be working? What is youth? I mean, it’s so relative. Why should any type of image or person personify youth? You’re as old as you feel.”

As a single mom, Murphy is aware that she’s about to embark on a new phase of her life now that Dylan is growing up. “She’s going to flee the nest in a year and a half,” says the model, her brow wrinkling. “She’s going to go to college. We have some things that we need to do before then, and I’m not talking just SAT and school prep.” To that end, the pair just spent six months in Costa Rica, where Dylan was homeschooled, so that they could reconnect and enjoy experiences, and the water, together.

Murphy says that the ocean has always been her much-needed constant. “I don’t know my life without being surrounded by the water,” she muses. “It’s the way that I connect. It’s my meditation. It’s what helps me to feel at one.” With people like Murphy showing us how to protect our oceans, hopefully it will stay that way.