A woman in a wetsuit with long brown wet hair came up, "Is Ximena here?" she asked. "Nope, she just left," I replied. Ximena is the Marine Debris project director. She looked down at the big pictures in the presentation in front of me. "Can I borrow this?" she asked, "I have a group of girls down the beach I want to show it to."
"Ahh, no...I am about to give a presentation with this. But I am happy to do a presentation for you too..." I replied. After a quick exchange of phone numbers, the wetsuit woman went down the beach where a big group of girls were waiting for her.
Thus was my first contact as Marine Debris presenter with Dionne, the founder of the Wahine Project. Dionne called immediately and we arranged a day for me to come do the presentation for her kids at the beach on effects of plastics in the ocean. It was not until much later that I would sit across from Dionne in a local coffee shop and listen to her story about what brought her to birth the Wahine Project...
The Wahine Project is a 501(c)(3) organization that was created in an effort to reach young girls who would otherwise not have access to the resources that would allow them to surf. Whether geographical, financial or lack of opportunity, The Wahine Project seeks to break down the barriers that prevent the participation of young girls in the sport of surfing and provide them the opportunity to not only become proficient surfers but as a result of surfing, increase their awareness to their global citizenship.
Although Dionne had just started surfing herself a year ago, she was no stranger to the ocean or the beach. Her x husband is a surfer and taught surfing so she was around it for about sixteen years. Her son also surfs. "But I would not go in past my ankles," she said.
"I was raised to be afraid of the ocean by my mom," Dionne confides. "She told me there was a canyon that I would fall into if I went too far out." Growing up in East Salinas as a young girl, Dionne did not start transforming that conditioned fear until she was an adult living in Pacific Grove. Her first victory over the fear of the ocean was the decision to do a triathlon that required an ocean swim. That triathlon six years ago was a step past her fear of the ocean.
Then came the a face book invitation from a friend to meet her at a surf spot. She decided to go for it and it ended up just being the two of them. "Sitting out there in the ocean I started thinking about all of the doors that had opened for me...that I would be here in the ocean, living in Pacific Grove."
At thirty eight years old Dionne was at a point of asking herself what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. I was reading "Rowing Across the Atlantic" by Roz Savage (who was the only woman to successfully row across the atlantic) and I would start crying at points in the book." She felt such a connection to the message she also explored the author's blog and later emailed her. To Dionne's delight, this author and adventurer responded to her email.
The seeds were planted by reading the blog which addressed how to know if you are doing what you are meant to be doing. Do you wake up every morning excited about life and feeling good about what you are doing? Can you apply everything you have ever learned in your life up to that point to do what you are doing now? Are you sharing the journey with others?
When Dionne asked herself, "What do I want to do with my life?" the answer came.
"I want to see more women and girls surfing, especially girls that would never even have the chance to surf." She started scribbling her ideas on sheets of paper. What are the things that prevent girls from surfing? Cultural boundaries, finances?
She started making phone calls to Quick Silver, Billabong, Surfaid...sponsors jumped in. She sent press releases out and contracts came in from groups like girl scouts as a non profit was born. The idea took on a life of it's own. People stepped in almost immediately with all kinds of support from getting a logo for the project to building a web site.
But the core of the project remains simple...
"Bring 'em to the beach...the whole point is to see the world is bigger than where they came from." Dionne continues, "I wou
ldn't think that surfing would make me change how I think about the world...but it has."Just as Dionne faced and embraced her fear of the ocean, so are the girls that come to the Wahine Project doing the same. "As I was out in the ocean with one of the girls, I saw she was crying. I asked her what was up and she said, 'I'm afraid. I am afraid I am going to fall off the board.'"
"It was totally flat out there. I just walked her through her fear. 'What if you did fall off? I am right here for you...'" she said to the little Wahine. Soon the girl saw what she was really afraid of was her own fearful thought.
Dionne also has had her own feelings of fear. "Sometimes I am afraid of the responsibility," she said of Wahine Project and it's growth. "But maybe I am just afraid of my own thought too," she adds.
"Someone asked me the other day, 'So are you the Wahine Project?' I said, 'No, it was my idea but no-no. There are so many arms, legs, heads and toes to make it work." Just as one wave comes in after the next, so do the resources and connections continue to flow in to help support more girls and women dive in through The Wahine Project.
For more info go to http://www.thewahineproject.org/
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