Meet Zakir and Natalie
So now, a little bit about us: We are Zakir (also known as "Sakir") and Natalie, the founders of Roots Lombok.
We met back in 2014—a bit of a cliché teacher-student story—but it clearly worked out for us. Because Zakirwas definitely not built for the cold European winters, we decided to base our lives in Gerupuk, Indonesia, which is Zakir’s beautiful coastal hometown.
Even though he grew up surrounded by world-class Lombok surf spots, Zakir didn't actually discover his passion for the ocean immediately. In fact, it took until he was 16 years old for his brother to introduce him to riding waves. From that exact moment on, surfing completely took over his life.
He eventually landed his first job as a local surf instructor in 2009 and spent nearly a decade refining his skills. During this time, he realized that coaching was just as fulfilling as surfing itself.
To back up his experience, Zakir earned his official surf coach qualification certificate in 2014. Today, he is deeply passionate about teaching beginner surf lessons and guiding intermediate surfers, always welcoming everyone into the ocean with a massive smile on his face.
Natalie, who is half Swiss and half German, was born in a small town in southern Bavaria, Germany. After graduating from high school, she ventured out into the wider world, moving to Switzerland to complete her studies in Zurich before working at a commercial law firm.
In 2014, she spent four months backpacking through Southeast Asia. She returned home with the wildly ambitious dream of building her own boutique hotel in Lombok—and yes, absolutely everyone thought she had completely lost her mind! Undeterred, she calculated exactly how long she would need to work and save to finance her dream project. It took five intense years of dedication, but that initial "crazy idea" slowly transformed into reality.
Today, Natalie balances running the retreat with her own ocean progression. She has been an avid small-wave surfer for five years, and loves to mix surf with daily yoga, therefore surf & yoga became the heartbeat of our retreat experience.
"Surfing might not be my primary passion, but it challenges me every single day to overcome my baser instincts—or, as we say in German, my innerer Schweinehund." Because of this, if there is a massive swell running and you spot someone patiently waiting out in the shoulder of the wave or safe in the channel, you can guarantee that person is Natalie!
