Surf, Culture, and Justice
Reclaiming the Ocean for Dominican Women & Girls
Our Story
Yemaya Surf is a non-profit organization founded in 2021 and located in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. We are dedicated to creating space and equity for Dominicans in surfing, climate justice, and holistic well-being. Our work exists to ensure that those historically excluded from coastal resources and sports can reclaim their connection to the ocean, fostering mental and spiritual resilience while learning and teaching ancestral lessons about environmental stewardship and climate resilience.
Our mission is to provide Dominican women and girls with access to surf therapy, empowerment, and environmental stewardship.
Why Yemaya?
Named for the Orisha or goddess of the ocean, Yemaya represents nurturing, resilience, and ancestral strength. Like her, we protect and empower our communities through the sacred power of water.
Our Founder
Hola, I’m Ysanet—I am a mother, a community organizer, daughter of the Caribbean, and founder of Yemaya Surf.
My journey with climate activism began ten years ago in New York City but five years ago I moved back to my native country of the Dominican Republic where I learned to surf in the coastal town of Cabarete. However, when I looked around in the water or the shore I saw very little women who looked like me, my mother, or my aunts. I was receiving so many benefits from surfing — building community, surf therapy, physical strength, and spiritual connection. I wanted girls & women from Cabarete and the Dominican Republic to have the same access without worrying about the costs.
That’s why I created Yemaya Surf so that Dominican women and girls learn to surf WHILE reclaiming the ocean as sacred space and climate justice frontline.
The Ocean Belongs to Everyone, Help Us Reclaim It.
Support Yemaya Surf
Cabarete is the Dominican Republic’s surf capital. Despite living steps from the ocean, Dominican women and girls are largely excluded from ocean sports, wellness spaces, environmental decision-making, and leadership opportunities. At the same time, there is a critical lack of accessible, culturally-rooted mental health and wellness spaces for low-income women and girls, leaving many without support to navigate the impacts of poverty, gender inequality, and climate stress.
Barriers exist at every level: local girls & women don’t have the liberty to simply pick up surfing as a hobby or possible career choice, surfboards and lessons are priced for tourists, private developments restrict beachfront access, and surf culture often feels unwelcoming for local, low-income Dominicans—especially women and girls.
Yemaya Surf flips this script.
We combine surfing, Afro-Indigenous healing, and climate justice to ensure Dominican women and girls aren’t just included in ocean spaces—they lead them.
But we can’t do it alone. For years, our founder Ysanet Batista self-funded this work. Now, we’re asking you to join the tide.
Your Donation Creates Ripples of Change
$50
Surf lesson for one girl
Like 16-year-old Aderlin, who overcame her fear of the water and now teaches others.
$150
Climate justice workshop
Funds tools for women to restore mangroves—their best defense against floods and hurricanes.
$500
Sponsors 10 surfers for a month
The cost of surf gear, boards, and trauma-informed coaching for a whole cohort.
$2,000+
Makes summer camp a reality
A week of surf therapy, climate education, and leadership training for 20 girls.
With your help, we’re..
✅ Training the DR’s first generation of local Dominican women surf therapy instructors
✅ Planting mangroves to shield vulnerable neighborhoods
✅ Proving that justice in the ocean starts with joy