East Coast Wahine Championships information

Our goal: To promote, support, and encourage women's surfing and the confidence, strength, and bonds of friendship it brings.

The East Coast Wahine Championships is open to amateur surfer girls on the East Coast. The annual event is held every August in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The contest began in 1997 under the leadership of Tammy Kennedy and the help of her local Eastern Surfing Association. Tammy, a longtime competitor for the ESA in Florida moved to Wilmington, NC and joined the southern North Carolina district ESA. She inspired and encouraged local girls to surf and wanted to see an event special to them. She organized the first wahine championships and 76 girls from several states competed. In 1998 Tammy moved on to California and Anne Beasley, Karen Allison, and Paula Bushardt tried to fill her shoes. Anne (that's me) was also an ESA surfer in Southern North Carolina and is also pursuing a career in writing. Anne implemented this website for contest information, photos, and results and is in charge of sponsor support for the wahine championships.. Karen is a longtime surfer, mom, and helps run her husbands shaping business, Allison surfboards. She is also a real estate agent and knows everyone in town! Paula also a longtime surfer and mom is the brains behind the heat sheets, beach setup, and anything technical. The second annual wahine contest had 111 competitors coming from New Jersey to Florida. The third year, 1999 was even more successful with 176 girls traveling from New York to Miami. The wahine championships began receiving national coverage from surfing magazines, websites, newsprint, and television. The contest format features shortboard, longboard, and bodyboard divisions with a novice division for beginners. The contest lasts two days and entry fee includes a Saturday night banquet with dinner. The goal for 2000 is to have surfer girls from every state on the Eastern Seaboard!

The ECWC is backed by our local Southern North Carolina Eastern Surfing Association

Although ECWC surfers are not required to be ESA members, the ECWC uses ESA equipment, judges, point system, and rules. We are promoting and supporting women's surfing, the confidence, strength, and bonds of friendship it brings. We hope one day the ESA will implement several women stand alone events a year.

The ECWC solely exists through the help of local and national sponsors. Surf Shops, Surf Industry, and other businesses are encouraged to support the ECWC through monetary and product donations. A few of our past national Sponsors include Elleven, Reef, Aaron Chang, and Water Girl. Local Surf Shops like Sweetwater, Aussie Island, Surf City, and Hot Wax, have generously donated money and prizes each year.

The ECWC has received national coverage!

Surfing magazine
Surfer magazine
Juice magazine
Longboard Magazine
Encore magazine
Wahine magazine
Eastern Surf Magazine
Northeast Surf News
Wilmington Star News
Rock 104.5 FM
Surf 107.5 FM.
Pacific Sunwear.com
Longboard.net
SNCSurf.com
swell.com