Salted Roots
Salted Roots is committed to creating a surf culture where all girls, women and gender expansive folks of color feel welcome, included, and self-empowered. This looks like holding community surf events, creating spaces for ocean connection, and advocating for equitable beach access.
Their programs create a path towards a surf culture that celebrates their diverse experiences as girls*, women*, and gender-expansive people of color – placing joy, community, and environmental reverence at the center – so that more of us can benefit from engaging in ocean play and connection.
“…joining Rising Leaders gave me community connection and a safe space to go during those challenging and isolating times. In Rising Leaders, I not only reignited my relationship with water and the ocean, but I was able to connect with Salted Roots’s magical community which helped me feel seen, strong, and important.”
-Indigo Eatmon, Rising Leader and Summer Camp CIT
Salted Roots provides a suite of complementary beach-based, BIPOC, and girl, woman, and gender-expansive-centered surf programs designed to welcome participants into an inclusive and supportive surf community and provide growth opportunities as surfers, community leaders, and ocean advocates. Salted Roots takes their work beyond direct participant engagement and into local advocacy; young people and their communities were engaged and trained to make their voices heard around a decision to further equitable beach access at the statewide level. They wrote petitions, organized their networks, and gave live testimony at the state capital in Sacramento. The result was on May 11th, 2023, the California Coastal Commission unanimously voted to approve the passage of the City of Pacifica’s Coastal Development Permit (CDP), fully authorizing a reformed surf school permitting program at Linda Mar Beach. The work being done in Pacifica is setting a precedent for the rest of California where many nonprofits and community organizations have faced similar permitting exclusion.
