Surf Getaways
- Mar 7, 2019
- 5 min read

International Women’s Day: how surfing inspires & empowers women

On International Women’s Day, we wanted to remind every one of you gals out there, why surfing is in our opinion, one of the best adventures a woman can have. From introducing yourself to the ocean and surf fitness to improving your intermediate or advanced skills, nothing beats what surfing can do for our bodies and our brains. So, read on, get pumped and paddle out!

Why do we believe surfing can inspire and empower women?

Surfing is a perfect environment to create self-confidence, personal achievement and breaking the barriers of fear for women in all sorts of situations. You’re in the water, your hair is all over the place. It doesn’t matter whether you normally wear makeup or not. It’s a great leveler. Within 24 hours the women recognize after the first surf that everyone is the same, it doesn’t matter, you’re all going to get wet, have your hair all over the place, you’re all going to be stumbling out of the boat.

It can be glamorous afterwards when you’re lying by the pool 😉 but it certainly is not when you’re paddling, duck diving under waves and getting wiped out! As with anything in life, it is not about how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up. Pushing yourself to move your boundaries in surfing is a life lesson that affects your attitude to life and its curveballs it can throw in general.

We believe groups of like-minded women help encourage each other as they learn enabling the process of building capability, confidence and acceptance, in a way that stays with them. The experience you have learning to surf is carried on way after our surfing tours end.

Why is surfing such a great thing for women to embrace at any age and any capability.

Surfing is a great exercise for women because you can get involved no matter what your capability. Even learning to paddle involves every muscle in your body is also an aerobic exercise burning excess fat and building muscle tone all over your body. And you can do this without having to go to a gym. Surfing is also a great way to build core strength helping build overall strength and improves posture at any age.

And with the ocean conditions changing every day, there is always a new challenge – be it paddling, duck diving or taking off on steeper waves, no surf is ever the same! Add to that the positive feelings and thoughts you have from being in the ocean and getting out at the beach on your own or with like-minded friends and you can’t really beat surfing as the ultimate exercise for women of any age.

We’ve had women who have only just learned to swim join one of our surf tours at the age of 40 and become addicted to surfing as a result, as well as women in their 60’s join us and inspire everyone else on the tour because they are the best surfer on the tour. Yes, thats right, surfing into your 60’s is a very doable thing.

Why is getting more women surfing a good thing?

Because surfing helps us build acceptance and tolerance, in a world where these qualities seem to be declining every year. We believe surfing is one of the few places where these qualities rule. Surfing builds camaraderie, confidence and delivers total acceptance of ourselves and greater tolerance of others. We have seen this time and time again, with our customers going on to build friendships, travelling and surfing with women they have only ever met on one of our surf tours.

When in the surf, we can’t hide our bodies, surfing levels us all, we are what we are and that’s just fine, its more than enough in the water. The ocean treats us all the same, there is no preferential model of treatment from the ocean. We all get tumbled around, we all fall, we all come up for air eventually. We all excel in different ways. Surfing helps us accept this about ourselves.

It’s also an activity that helps you realise your own strength both psychological and physical and helps us realise how we are all capable of much more than we think we are. Improving your surfing capability is purely down to how much you put in to it and how much you want to get out of it. There is no secret formula one person has. We believe this is a great metaphor for life in general.

Why the need for women’s surf tour companies, run by women, for women.

Because we believe women learn differently, we listen, we practice and we are little less aggressive in the water than our male counterparts. That doesn’t make us any less skilled as surfers, what it means is we allow space and time for those around us to learn too. We like to encourage and be encouraged to be better or braver. Yes, we can be competitive, but in a contained way. We much rather head out and surf with our girlfriends and all have a blast, rather than spend hours proving how much better we are than them. Fun for us gals is having the best surf of the day with our surf buddies!

What’s different about Surf Getaways? Our mission is to inspire and empower as many women as possible to reach their full potential through surfing. Surfing is our passion and we truly believe we can change peoples lives for the better through surfing. We live by the mantra that you are never too old to get in the water. Whether you have never surfed before and have now decided its time to try, or you have surfed years before and would like to give it another go, or you have been surfing regularly and want to push your self to the next level, we have something for you.

We believe we are the only surf tour company in the world that coaches levels from beginner through to pro, and the only focused on doing this for women. Our introductory tours aim to build a solid foundation by introducing and overcoming fear of the ocean or surfing in general, rather than throwing you in the deep end, way out of your comfort zone and scare you off surfing. We take time to focus on the basics and look at everyone’s individual performance and ability to tailor our coaching. We believe every woman who joins our tours should be entitled to the latest surf coaching techniques available, and we try our hardest to deliver this every single time.

So what’s new with Surf Getaways?

Our new tours to Vanuatu for women wanting to give surfing a shot for the first time or get back into it. We take it slowly and add lots of basic training, so fear is a word you’ll never use again.

And there are our new tours to Bali, Indonesia for beginner, intermediate and advanced level surfers. Bali is the place you’ll have that exotic surfing experience while surfing some of the worlds most famous breaks like the perfect left-hander at Medewi on Bali’s west coast. Add to that some of the best local food you’ll ever have and you’ll add Bali to your favourites list, just like we have.