{"id":94704,"date":"2017-06-08T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oncubamagazine.com\/?p=94704"},"modified":"2017-05-31T18:51:44","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T22:51:44","slug":"wahine-project-cuba-girls-riding-the-surf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/sports\/wahine-project-cuba-girls-riding-the-surf\/","title":{"rendered":"Wahine Project Cuba: girls riding the surf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yaya did not win them over with candy or soft drinks. She, Yaliagni Guerrero, was able to gather on an April morning so many children in Santa Fe beach because she has given them an opportunity of surfing on an island where water sports are not very frequent.<\/p>\n

A trainer in the National Aquarium and formed as a biologist, her sort of club has not been consolidated and, in that sense, what she is trying to do is \u201cteach the children who approach me how to surf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yaya<\/a>
Yaya with children surfers in the Santa Fe beach. Photo: Darcy Borrero.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea was born based on the alliance with Wahine Project, an organization created in 2010 as an initiative so that girls and young women of the world learn to surf, mainly those without the resources to do so. And they decided to also come to Cuba.<\/p>\n

The project seeks to not just facilitate the participation of girls and young women in the sport of surfing, but also to increase their awareness as citizens of the world. According to its Facebook page, through an educational program that includes surfing lessons, excursions and lectures, they aim to equip girls aged between 7 and 17 years with a sense of social responsibility and a physical fitness which they can only achieve through the practice of surfing, the observation of the ocean and sea-related recreation activities.<\/p>\n

Yaya is Wahine Project\u2019s principal point of support in Cuba. She attained the passion for surfing more than 13 years ago, when she had just gotten to the Aquarium to work with sea mammals. Yaya got to the project in 2015, when Nataly, another of the program\u2019s promoters, discovered that she was one of the few Cuban women who practiced surfing.<\/p>\n

\"Wahine<\/a>
Wahine Project meeting with girl surfers on the beach on 70th Street in September 2016. Photo: OlaPiCreative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI work with children aged up to 15 years because I believe that at that age they are still children, although when I train them the age doesn\u2019t matter. Neither do I divide them; I try for all of them to participate. It\u2019s the only way I have of incentivizing them to continue in that sport,\u201d Yaya says to OnCuba<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelection? I have made no selection; they are the ones who have selected me. I came here once and I surfed, they saw me and we started doing it together. We surfed an entire afternoon. There were kids who didn\u2019t know how to surf and others who knew but didn\u2019t have a good technique, so they asked me to teach them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is to form them so that when they are older they have opportunities. There\u2019s still a long road to travel from here to there, and perhaps surfing will continue spreading throughout the country and that it\u2019s not just some kids\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The laughter, noise and rejoicing proper of those ages reach the shore of 1ra and 296 streets in Santa Fe, a coastal town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel super happy to have Yaya because here there was no one to teach us, to give us a hand, to help us, always on top of us so that we learn,\u201d says V\u00edctor Manuel Contreras, aged 14. \u201cSince I was a kid I liked this sport, but my mother didn\u2019t let me because she was afraid of the sea, until one day she let me and I continue practicing to be much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jos\u00e9 Michel Hern\u00e1ndez, at 10 and with a five-year-old sister \u2013 Isabelita, the team\u2019s youngest \u2013 learning to surf and being in contact with other children has been very special.<\/p>\n