As the sun rises over Newport Beach, Vanessa Yeager is out in the water for a surf. She heads to the local high school at 8.30 am, where she teaches Physical Education until 2:30 pm. She then takes her son to soccer practice, heads to the Visit Huntington Beach HQ to attend a meeting of the ambassador programme she is a part of and, if the conditions are right, squeezes another late afternoon surf session before the day is over. And if being a mother, surfer, Physical Education teacher, and ambassador for Surf City USA weren’t enough, Vanessa also sets aside time to approve posts and respond to emails and messages in the two up-and-coming surf groups she has founded and runs single-handedly – Women Who Surf and Latinx Surf Club – both of which use surfing as a tool to create a safe space for people to interact, have fun, and learn together, all the while building a support system and raising awareness about these two demographics of surfing that, among many others, are vastly under-represented.
“I always knew I wanted to follow my dreams, and all those dreams surrounded surfing, travelling, and family. This is the life I see for myself. Loving what I do, and doing it not for the money or the fame, but the community.”
