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 surfing for healing, empowerment, and climate justice.,
Why Yemaya?
Named for the Orisha 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, a racial justice facilitator, 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 no women who looked like me, my mother, or my aunts. No one spoke of Yemaya, our ocean Orisha. No one connected surfing to our right to protect these shores.
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
The north coast of the Dominican Republic holds world-class waves—and a 500-year legacy of exclusion. Since Columbus landed in Puerto Plata, access to the ocean has been shaped by colonialism, racism, and gender barriers. Today, Afro-Dominican and Indigenous women and girls are still told the sea isn’t for them, while foreign-owned resorts and surf camps profit from their ancestral shores.
At the same time, climate chaos displaces coastal communities. Hurricanes tear through homes, while deforestation and government neglect leave locals—especially women—to bear the burden.
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 Ana, 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 wetsuits, 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.
Every year, rising seas and tourism gentrification push Dominicans further from their coasts. But with your help, we’re..
✅ Training the DR’s first generation of local Dominican women surf instructors
✅ Planting mangroves to shield vulnerable neighborhoods
✅ Proving that justice in the ocean starts with joy