In 2016, a group of female surfers in Oahu came together with a shared belief: When women come together to support and uplift one another, they can change the world. The surfing sisterhood founded the Changing Tides Foundation, initially to provide aid in disaster-stricken coastal communities in Latin America, then shifting the focus to empowering those communities’ girls and young women after witnessing a common thread of gender disparities.
“Teen girls would be inside the homes while the men were playing at the beach or out surfing in the ocean,” says Carolyn Saunders, executive director of the Changing Tides Foundation. “[Changing Tides’ founders] knew what an incredibly transformative power the ocean had had in their own lives, and they really wanted to be able to share that special connection that they had with the ocean with other women and girls.”
Founders Becky Mendoza, Anna Santoro, Leah Dawson, and Jianca Lazarus launched a mentorship program for teen girls that had a surfing component and rotating educational sessions on everything from environmental stewardship to better understanding their bodies. The group would meet weekly, then each girl would split off for one-on-one time with her mentor.
When the pandemic struck, the program was paused temporarily and the foundation uprooted and moved to San Diego, where some of the founders had family ties.
Since 2022, the foundation has almost exclusively served girls in San Diego—more than 100 and counting. This past summer, Changing Tides paired up with the Monarch School to host a six-week mentoring program for its students.
“One of the things that was so special to see was [that despite] everything that those girls are dealing with in their lives, to notice the looks on their faces when they were at the beach, and especially when they were in the water learning to ride their very first waves,” says Saunders.
The school was so impressed, officials asked Changing Tides to be their surf partner and turn the program into an annual event.
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The nonprofit also recently returned to Latin America for the first time since the pandemic, this time broadening their reach by partnering with existing nonprofits already working with teen girls there and ensuring cultural representation by recruiting guest educators who are local to each respective area.
In the works for 2026 is a skateboarding mentorship program for San Diego girls who may not be as fond of the ocean but still could benefit from the mentoring and education components. The foundation also has an ambitious plan to double the number of teens it serves. And without a doubt, Changing Tides will continue to empower girls to find community and inspire change.
