Southeast Regional Coordinator, Kelly Drewnowski, organized the region’s first ever surf event – a partnership with Wes Laine Surf Camp – which took place on August 8th. It also was the first ever all female camp for Wes Laine & crew! Read up on the experience of learning to surf on the edge of a nor’easter.
On a very windy Saturday in August, over 20 ladies and young girls attended the very first SheJumps into Surfing Outdoor Education event in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This one-day camp was the perfect opportunity to learn how to surf with the pros of Wes Laine Surf Camp in a safe, fun and relaxed environment. It was an epic day that created many awesome memories and a few new female surfers, despite the nor’easter blowing in!
Everyone was so excited to learn to hang ten that we hardly noticed the slight rain and overcast skies. We did however notice the high winds and rough surf that day!
After the ladies checked in and received their sweet goody bags full of water bottles, surf camp shirts, koozies, lip balm, stickers and much more, it was finally time to hit the beach.
As a former top 10 ASP World Tour competitor, Wes shared his experience and knowledge of surfing with us. He and his staff did a fantastic job of keeping everyone safe and smiling while we all learned to ride the waves, even when they doubled up and came from two directions!
The instructors helped everyone select a board and then taught the ladies the art of paddling and popping up. They helped us to experience the thrill of surfing while learning surf etiquette and ocean safety. Wes and his staff were patient, encouraging and awesome!
It was a fun way to learn new skills, meet new friends and have a great time with fellow female outdoor enthusiast while spreading the word about SheJumps! Even our tiniest jumpers were smiling and having lots of fun despite the blustery, gray day!
Everyone came together to make sure we each knew what we were doing and that we were well prepared before getting wet. Here one mom is helping another participant’s daughter she just met! It’s all about teamwork!
After some dry land exercises we were ready to take our new knowledge to the water.
The youngest hitched a ride…and so did some of the rest of us! Wes noted these were the roughest surf conditions they had experienced all summer. He couldn’t believe how well everyone did and what troopers the ladies and girls were for sticking it out!
Many were starting to get the hang of it! It was great to see everyone smiling at one another and cheering each other on even though they had just met.
By the end of the session we were all riding waves and loving it! Wes lived up to his promise of getting all of us to ride a wave by the end of the day!
Some made it look so easy and natural, even in the rough surf!
And at some point we all fell off, but more importantly got back up!
The best part of the event was watching everyone support one another and celebrate in each other’s success, which is what it’s all about!
After several hours of wave riding it was time to rest and refuel. While the ladies enjoyed delicious boxed lunches delivered by Taste Unlimited, we had the drawing for our awesome raffle prizes. The Roxy rashguards from Backcountry were a huge hit along with the SURF hats from Athleta! Almost everyone took home a prize and/or some new SheJumps Girafficorn gear!
We spread the SheJumps Girafficorn love in a big way at the surfing event! Several of the ladies are rocking new t-shirts and their awesome Girafficorn hats.
Love the matching mother-daughter Girafficorns! Keep your eye out for another increase in Girafficorn sightings in the Southeast thanks to everyone’s generous support.
Thanks to all the ladies and girls who braved the wind and waves to learn to surf with us. We had a fantastic time despite the less than stellar conditions. This was an excellent opportunity for many to try something new, to support an awesome organization and meet new friends! We can’t wait to team up with Wes and his crew again to offer a SheJumps into Surfing event next year!
We’d like to give a huge thanks to Wes Laine and the staff of Wes Laine Surf Camps for helping SheJumps put together this amazing Outdoor Education event. We’d also like to thank our amazing partners: Taste Unlimited for the delicious boxed lunches, gift certificate and koozies, Backcountry for the cool raffle prizes and awesome goody bag items, Athleta at Short Pump for several great raffle prizes, Duke Automotive for the gift certificates, tent and vehicle for the day, EcoLips for the lip balm and A. Dodson’s for the gift certificates! Without each of these partners we wouldn’t be able to host such awesome events. Please support them as they have supported each of us in our endeavor to learn something new! We hope to partner again with each of you for future SheJumps events!
Thanks again to all of the wonderful ladies in attendance for coming out and supporting SheJumps. We can’t wait to see each of you at future SJ events!