Words  Liza Monroy, @lizamonroy
Images  Mei-Li Restani, @meilirestani

“I don’t look like the ‘typical’ surfer,” Marisol Godinez says. “At least not for people who are looking at surfing from further away.” She was once one of those people, despite growing up by the ocean in Puerto Rico. She had seen boys riding shortboards and figured surfing was a sport for them—as the saying goes, if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.

Representation and inclusion are themes deeply woven into the fabric of her life as an organiser, activist, and philanthropist. “I’m always aware that it’s good to give back,” she says. “I have what I need.” In 2008, she took on a volunteer role spearheading Women on Waves, a women’s community surf contest in Capitola, CA. Godinez sees WOW as a platform to amplify messages on work that still needs to be done in the areas of social and environmental justice, with beneficiaries, such as this year’s Sea Hugger, working in the areas of ocean conservation and ridding the sea of plastic pollution. 
“[Women on Waves] was a surf contest. Now it’s a surf contest with a purpose,” she says. Originally, the contest’s intention was to empower women. “Now we are in power, we have voices. We want to use them to deliver these different messages—underserved youth, diversity, ocean conservation. The event is evolving and morphing into something we haven’t seen.”

“People are connecting with us in the water and it’s a very organic process.”

This year, after being a surfer and social justice worker for the past 20, the professional graphic designer brought her art to custom surfboards. She started Sol y Mar surfboards with her own longtime shaper Carl Gooding to make boards for women. Gooding, who started shaping not because he was a pro-surfer—he wasn’t—but because he wasn’t satisfied with the options he found for his two daughters, who had joined a surf club. Godinez’s son was on the same team, so the two crossed paths. Gooding wanted some design help with his website, so Godinez created it, acquiring her first custom surfboards along the way. “He’s an artist too,” she says. Every artist loves creative control. “At some point I said, ‘trust me. You hired me to do this, let’s just see how it goes.’”
Godinez, who is inspired by the Curvy Surfer Girl Instagram and body-inclusivity movement, had previous experience working with shapers on graphics, but they were one-offs. With Sol y Mar, she’s involved in all aspects of the process. The name of the company is a play on her own name spelled backwards—and means “Sun and Sea” in her native Spanish. 

 “There’s room for everyone at the table in surf culture,” she says, and she hopes Sol y Mar will contribute to that ethos. “This goes back to wanting to create spaces for women to feel comfortable,” she says. “We carry more weight in our hips and are narrower in the shoulders, using our core and hips to move the board.” 
Godinez and Gooding launched Sol y Mar with four models: a high-performance longboard, a noserider, an all-purpose longboard, and a midlength. “It’s been super interesting to learn about all the details of shaping,” Godinez says. There are so many technical aspects—rocker, concave, noses, tails, fin configurations—the details of surfboard-creation are endless and she’s loving the process. “There’s a margin of, not error, but of things that are going to change in the process. There’s flexibility. I like that element of surprise too. It makes your board more unique. And glassers deserve a lot more credit. It’s gnarly.” 

Regardless of who shapes their boards, the designer hopes surfers feel that the right equipment “brings you to another level, as does having a board you feel proud, identify with, and that makes you feel represented.” Like the sea itself, her evolution with the new work has been fluid. “People are connecting with us in the water and it’s a very organic process.”
For her 50th birthday, Godinez’s surf life came back around full circle. “We went to Puerto Rico so I could surf there. All I wanted was to be in the water there. We drove three hours to get to a spot that had a good swell. The planets aligned. My non-surfing friends were sitting there waiting for me, but it was all I wanted.”