Untamed Daughters
Untamed Daughters is a women’s-only day conceptualized by Changing Tides Foundation & GRLSWIRL to bridge the gap between women’s skate & surf empowerment while adding in a beach cleanup, a delicious meal, yoga & an after-party open to the public. This first one was a test run and we can tell you it was nothing short of amazing!
In all, 50 ladies participated in Untamed Daughters in Venice Beach, the likes of which included legends like professional surfer Rochelle Ballard, iconic skateboarder Laura Thornhill Caswell, Olympic snowboarder Elena Hight, Professional Wakeboarder Sian Hurst and other influencers such as Lex Weinstein, Calli Kelsay and ladies who had never surfed or skateboarded before. It was an inclusive, all-levels day of female empowerment!
The day began with an orientation where guests checked in and ate Sao Acai Bowls, got their amazing goodie bags stocked full to the brim by our awesome sponsors. Rothy's, the presenting sponsor of the event gave each participant a brand new pair of sneakers to skate with. Supporting sponsor, Marine Layer included a $30 gift card for each participant as well as a prepaid envelope to be used for their Respun program, where you send in your old T-shirts and they give you a a $5 credit per T! Vuori Clothing gave each participant a tote, water bottle and pair of yoga pants.
From there the gifts continued to pour out of the gift bags: Mizu included a custom Untamed Daughters insulated tumbler and reusable utensil set, Leus towels donated their Twister yoga towels and additional gifts included Clif Bars, Active Skin Repair, Simply Straws glass straws, Sun Potion’s Eucomma, bags from Aloha Collection and a spa kit from Nufaces Day Spa. To say the schwag bag was on point is an understatement.
After wrapping up orientation, the ladies headed out for a beach cleanup, to get to know each other and attempt to intercept some trash before it hit the ocean. Let’s just say Venice has some very interesting litter on their beaches which we were glad to dispose of appropriately.
Once the cleanup was done, we transitioned into the surf portion of the day. Changing Tides Foundation co-founder, Anna Santoro, led a surf lesson for those ladies who had not surfed before. Once the lesson was over, we headed out into the Breakwater. In all we had between 15-20 first-time surfers, with boards provided courtesy of Summer of Surf. This was a beautiful effort, with most of the experienced surfers catching some waves then helping push the new surfers into their first waves. What a thrill watching these ladies charging. Lady skateboarders are fearless, and it really showed in the waves!
With stoke levels at an all-time high, we headed back to camp for an incredible brunch on the beach provided by The Butcher’s Daughter which included clean, delicious vegan and vegetarian options, fresh juices, chocolate chip cookies and additional drink options from Zola Coconut Water and Bos Tea. Mizu set up a water station for the day to keep us hydrated and keep the plastic off the beach. The table was set beautifully: a long, low table with white linens, adorned with passionfruit vines, wildflower arrangements from Butcher’s Daughter, palm leaf plates and our Mizu reusable utensils and tumblers. We all sat on blankets on the sand under the tent, Rochelle Ballard blessed the food and we dined like the queens that we are! There’s nothing quite like bonding with people over a meal, food is truly a special way to cultivate community.
With full bellies, we took some downtime to just lay on the sand, get some sun and digest the beautiful memories we created that morning.
Then came the skate portion, where traded our flip flops for our new Rothy’s sneakers, walked over to the flat concrete adjacent to the skatepark and the ladies from Grl Swirl provided a lesson which included tips and demos on their signature Carver skateboards. It was beautiful participating in the carve dance and sharing this space with so many courageous and confident women. Once everyone got their bearings on the concrete, we headed into the super-intimidating Venice Beach skate park.
The local skaters in the park allowed us ladies the space to try new things and build confidence, which was exactly what the day was all about. Plus, we got to pump our music which resulted in a daytime dance-party.
Once we’d had enough of the concrete, we headed back to the beach to wind down with the restorative yoga session, hosted by Vuori and led by Anna Santoro and Rochelle Ballard on our awesome Leus yoga towels. This was the perfect way to unwind and reflect on an amazing day!
From there, we closed up camp and changed into our party outfits for our after-party at Lone Wolfs which was open to all genders and hosted by Juneshine with vegan pizza provided by Big Daddy’s. Each after-party ticket included free Juneshine, beer and mezcal drinks and a reusable Changing Tides Foundation x Mizu stainless steel pint cup for drinks, keeping the event plastic-free, in true Changing Tides Foundation fashion. Did we forget to mention that Carver set up a skate ramp at the after-party? Which just meant, more rad chicks absolutely ripping into the evening! Oh, and the music!! The evening began with a set by the lovely Winter, then King Archie Band absolutely ripped the place to shreds with their punk set (we’ve never quite seen so much salty beach hair swinging around in one place) and Dersu, took us on a musical journey with his DJ set prompting a dance party that went into the wee hours of the night.
Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you: THIS WAS ALL FOR CHARITY! Although Untamed Daughters was invite-only, a donation was required for participation, in order to help us fund the Women and Water project in Peru and to help Grl Swirl with their next international skate mission trip to empower girls through skateboarding. That, plus sponsorships and after-party tickets, resulted in an event that, raised nearly $5,000 for each organization. WHOA!
We cannot thank each organization, participant, brands, musicians, and party-animal enough!! Who’s in for the next one??