Participants go over winging equipment during Aunties Beach Day on June 7 at Hoaloha Park in Kahului. The event was organized by Kelea Foundation to help make recreation and the outdoors more accessible. Photo courtesy Kelea Foundation

A morning of windsurfing, paddleboarding and winging at Hoaloha Park became more than a day at the beach for the women who gathered June 7 for Aunties Beach Day.

The Kelea Foundation event, held at Hawaiian Canoe Club in Kahului, invited women of all skill levels to try new ocean sports, build confidence on the water and connect with others in the community.

“The goal is socializing first and then creating opportunities to try things in your own way,” said Jennifer Gladwin, founder and executive director of Kelea Foundation. “We share our skills and support each other. The goal of Kelea Foundation has always been to lower the barriers to sports for women. This program does that in a way that is highly community-based.”

The Kelea Foundation, a Maui-based nonprofit dedicated to making recreation and the outdoors accessible to all people, was founded in 2012 with a vision of bringing girls and women together through water sports. Early programs included stand-up paddleboard clinics, which later expanded into waves and other ocean sports.

“We started with SUP clinics back then and started getting into the waves and other sports as that developed,” Gladwin explained. “In 2014, we pulled together a diverse group of women to ask, ‘What do you want to pass along to the next generations?’ Over a period of about six weeks we collected all kinds of lessons and values that the women in our programs wanted to pass along and created our girls in the lineup vision and programming.”

Participants gather on the beach at Hoaloha Park in Kahului for Aunties Beach Day on June 7, which invited women to try ocean sports including windsurfing, paddleboarding and winging. Photo courtesy Kelea Foundation

Following the 2023 Maui wildfires, Gladwin said the need for women to gather, support one another and spend time in the ocean became even more clear. A group text called “Aunties Crew” became a way for women to find others to join them in water sports, volunteer at events and build friendships outside formal programs.

While Aunties Beach Day did not center on formal lessons, participants and volunteers said the event created space for women to learn from one another at their own pace.

“I immediately volunteered my skills as a wingfoiler,” said volunteer Kasia Hayden. “I remember how much it meant to me when I was learning to hear words of encouragement shouted across the waves from other foilers, like Scott and Greg Drexler of Boardriding Maui and Michele and Howie Howell, and I want to be that support now. The Kelea Foundation’s event gave me an opportunity to give back to the Maui community.”

Hayden said water sports have influenced more than her time in the ocean.

“Practicing synchronizing with forces of nature is the kind of meditative study that permeates the rest of my life philosophy,” Hayden said. “It’s taught me to watch, listen and adjust, to work with forces instead of against them. For the women of Maui, there’s never been a better time to take advantage of these nonprofit and volunteer organizations like the Kelea Foundation and Kaia Collective to dip your toe into water sports.”

Gladwin said the program is about helping women see themselves as belonging in the water, whether or not they fit a traditional image of a “water woman.”

“I think the whole point really is that we do different sports and we support and share our skills with each other,” Gladwin said. “That was a central value from the very beginning. Sharing knowledge and resources together. Women keep coming to us so happy and grateful. I think it’s showing us how desperately this type of community is needed. Real women, no pretense or pretending. Come as you are, have fun in the ocean with other women.”

The Kelea Foundation welcomed women for a morning of ocean and beach activities during Aunties Beach Day June 7 at Hoaloha Park. Photo courtesy Kelea Foundation

Gladwin said those connections can also help women feel supported beyond a single event.

“Having the opportunity to feel the strength of the women around you reminds you that you’re not alone,” she said. “I hope that through these connections we start to see even more projects and community building come out of it.”

She said fun is also an important part of healing and community building.

“I think having fun is also critical,” Gladwin said. “Having each other to just go out and have some fun with, being understood at a very specific level, being heard and seen and known by people who share something in common with you is vital to our recovery and helps us thrive.”

No date has been set for the next Aunties Beach Day event. More information is available at keleafoundation.org/aunties-crew-1.