The Wahine Project
Dionne Ybarra is the founder of The Wahine Project, a non-profit organization offering a substantive year-long surf/social life curriculum for girls and teens in addition to offering a menu of 
summer surf camps. As a mother of four sons, and a former birth doula who has attended over 200 births, Dionne’s approach to teaching surfing has something in common with her experiences as a doula “guiding a woman thru birth,” helping her “walk through her fears to find strength and courage.”
Surfing transformed Dionne’s life when she picked it up as an adult. She has since sought to share the power of surfing. Raised herself in East Salinas and familiar with its challenges, Dionne founded The Wahine Project in an effort to reach girls who would otherwise not have access to either the financial, geographical or other resources that would allow them to surf. Its homebase is Monterrey, California.
Under Dionne’s leadership, Project Wahine has initiated Project South Swell, and the Mom’s Surf Group, as well as the ingenious commemorative occasion, Women’s International Surfing Month. A stand-out moment for her in her work with surfing was giving a Tedx Talk, “Surfing Locally, Acting Globally,” key themes of her work in surfing.
Collaborations of Institute for Women Surfers & Project Wahine
Since 2014, Project Wahine and the Institute for Women Surfers have collaborated in a program that combines Wahine’s outreach and surf talents with the educational insights and strength offered by the Institute. We are now in year #2 of our work together. One of the Institute’s favorite visuals (below), evidence of the philosophy of community building Wahine promotes, was recently posted to Wahine
‘s Facebook pages. What wisdom! And a great model for a collaboration which embraces Institute commitments to intergenerational nurture, supporting transfers of feminist knowledge across generations.