How Surferelle is Rethinking Women’s Surf Coaching

Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

Even while competing in the World Surf League Qualifying Series, Elle Sampiere struggled to feel confident in her surfing. Constantly surrounded by some of the best surfers in the world — many of them men — she found herself questioning her own abilities. 

But the antidote proved to be simple: a girls’ surf trip with her friends in the tropics. “It would reignite my feeling of, ‘Oh, I'm actually good at surfing, I can do this kind of thing.’” 

Years later, a photographer on a trip approached Sampiere about coaching a women’s surf trip in the Mentawais. She agreed, and the trip sold out within minutes. Then, the photographer backed out. 

Sampiere decided to run it anyway. In June 2024, the first Surferelle trip hit the water. 

From there, the trips have taken off. In 2027, Sampiere will hold 11 trips, coaching over 100 women, with skill levels ranging from beginner to advanced. 

Elle Sampiere. Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

While trips continued filling up, Sampiere simultaneously built out Surferelle, the platform — what she describes as a one-stop shop for female surfers, with gear recommendations, e-books, trip booking, community features, surfer profiles and, most recently, Surferelle Stages. 

As Surferelle grew, Sampiere ran into a problem familiar to anyone who has tried to define their surfing ability: “beginner,” “intermediate” and “advanced” can mean wildly different things to different surfers. 

“And not everyone has photos and videos,” Sampiere said, which makes it more difficult for her to estimate a surfer's ability. Sometimes, a surfer would inquire about a trip and place herself at a high intermediate level, when in reality, she was closer to a high beginner. 

“So I thought, okay, I need a very detailed roadmap of surf progression.” 

The problem led Sampiere to develop Surferelle Stages, a five-stage system designed to more precisely categorize surfers' abilities. Surfers are able to browse the five stages, which include sections on what a surfer should be focusing on and what they may be struggling with, and choose their level before booking trips.

Women-only surf retreats have cropped up across the globe, but dedicated coaching trips are harder to find. Many of these retreats are built around safety nets and baby waves, sheltering female surfers. With Surferelle, the goal is progression. 

Sampiere’s third intermediate Maldives trip of September brought me and ten other surfers together, coached by Sampiere and photographed by Keana Rivet. In the nine days we spent traipsing through the Maldivian Atolls, every girl had a different goal or skill to work on. 

Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

On the first few days of the trip, my goal seemed clear: improve my backside turns. In the water, Sampiere told me to bend my legs and pull my front arm back. I thought I was doing it, until it was time for clip review and it became painfully obvious that I was only doing a fraction of the full movement. 

The next morning, I paddled back out with a specific adjustment to make. 

Writer Kailey Aiken. Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

While I was focused on turns, another surfer was working on positioning herself deeper at takeoff. Another was trying to figure out her timing. 

One of the surfers, Dawn Jacob, said she looked into several other women’s surf retreats online before ultimately choosing Sampiere’s. 

“That extra level of coaching and having non-stop video and photos of your progress was truly why I gravitated towards [Surferelle],” Jacob said. 

After a week of surfing under Sampiere’s guidance, Jacob said she felt she progressed, and better yet, had tons of instruction to take home and use to improve. 

Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

One of Sampiere’s coaching philosophies came up repeatedly throughout the week: “I coach at your potential, not at your level.” Pushing surfers in a supportive, safe environment can open the door to progress that's difficult to unlock alone. 

Many of the women also noticed a difference in surfing a majority female lineup. 

During a classroom session midway through the trip, Sampiere asked the group to share any struggles they wanted to discuss. One surfer admitted feeling intimidated, or hesitant in crowded, mixed lineups at home. Then another chimed in, agreeing. Soon, several women around the table were describing versions of the same story: they knew how to surf, but in crowded lineups at home, they sometimes became hesitant to paddle for waves.

Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

Sampiere said she’s seen women feel more confident, and be more willing to try new things on these trips, and that there's overall less embarrassment and judgement in the water. Ideally, that confidence carries into their surfing back home. 

But a female-stacked lineup isn't a cure-all. The usual challenges of surfing don't disappear simply because most of the men do. There were still occasional mix-ups over priority, accidental drop-ins and we weren’t always alone in the line up. And like any group of surfers working to improve, we had difficult sessions, moments of frustration and times when we got in our own heads.

This is where the coaching part of Surferelle trips really finds its worth. Even at very similar levels, the girls in the Maldives all had very different goals, habits to get rid of, and hurdles to overcome. A week of coaching in a small group setting allowed each surfer to dial in on what they needed to work on, receive feedback, test it in the water, and come back to the next session with something new to try. 

Many of the girls expressed that the feedback and lessons from Sampiere will play a big role in improving their surfing at home. 

What began as the kind of surf trip Sampiere needed herself has grown into something she hopes can help other women answer the same doubts she once carried into the lineup. And, Surferelle is nowhere near at its peak -- Sampiere sees the business growing far beyond the surf trips and small community it currently runs.

Most recently, Sampiere has opened up Inside Line, a membership that allows surfers to access Surferelle educational content, special discounts and offers, and an all-women's community group chat. 

Photo courtesy Keana Rivet

When Sampiere imagines success for Surferelle, she pictures girls showing up to lineups around the world with Surferelle stickers on their boards, and other surfers seeing the sticker and thinking, she means business. 

“I really want to try to influence and change the surf industry and where it's going right now,” she said. “Women are really, really prominent in the surf industry now.”