“I like surfing because I feel like the true me. I think that surfing can show off to people that you can actually do something,” Salinas, CA resident and pre-teen surfer, Mari Howarth, told filmmaker Jay Dunn. “If somebody says really mean things like ‘Boys can do this and girls can’t,’ that’s a stereotype. If you really want to do it, just believe in it and you can do it.”

As a participant in the Wahine Project, an organization and movement founded by Salinas native and surfer Dionne Ybarra, Howarth represents the upcoming generation of female surfers, and Ybarra’s program embodies the multiracial, transnational, boundary eschewing nature of the sport. Established in April of 2010, the Wahine Project aims to eliminate barriers to surfing — geographic, economic, and cultural — for children, particularly girls aged 7 to 17. Wahine uses surfing to link young women across state, national, and international borders, while promoting its Global Citizenship curriculum as a means to encourage collective action and awareness. In many ways, the Wahine Project represents the 21st century culmination of over 50 years of perseverance by California women to create a place for themselves on the waves.

Read full article at KCET.