See women hit the waves for SLO County’s only all-female surf competition
Laughter, surf boards and stoke filled the air as the sun rose over the Cayucos Pier on Saturday morning in November — surefire signs of a surfing competition — but the contest was different from any other on the Central Coast.
The Diva Cup Surf Invitational is San Luis Obispo County’s only women’s surf competition, and one of just a few female-first contests in all of California.
Close to 100 surfers from near and far flocked to the shore of SLO County on Nov. 22 for the third annual Diva Cup competition, prepared not only to bring their best to the water but also to show support for their fellow competitors from the sand.
The competition is the premier event of the Femme Futures Foundation, a local nonprofit whose mission is to empower women through surfing, art and community growth.
“We’re not the most serious. We’re not the most competitive. We’re the most fun,” executive director Kyra Joseph told The Tribune. “That’s our thing.”
Now in its third year, Joseph and her co-founders — creative director Jo Anna Edmison and board president Sierra Emrick — lead their all-female board of directors, team of interns and around 20 volunteers to pull off the annual surfing event.
“If you just get women together in a space, the rest is natural,” Emrick told The Tribune.
The story of SLO County’s first women’s surfing contest
Joseph and Emrick, both born to SLO County surf families, grew up surfing on the Central Coast — mostly surrounded by men.
“If you ever ran into another woman surfing, it was exciting and cool,” Joseph said. “We were kind of just used to being one of the boys.”
Growing up, the founders competed in men’s surf competitions against a handful of other women for prizes tailored to men: men’s wetsuits and trophies “with a dude on it,” Joseph said. “The women (were) kind of an afterthought,” she said.
Emrick said it was easy to feel competitive with other women instead of supportive in this environment, which made a surfing community hard to come by as a kid.
“There wasn’t a women’s surf culture,” she said.
Both women ultimately left SLO County to start their careers elsewhere. Emrick worked on environmental nonprofits abroad, while Joseph advanced in other male-dominated industries with high barriers to entry for women — a “reoccurring theme in my life,” she said — like DJing and music festival event planning.
It wasn’t until both women returned to SLO County and surfed in the area as adults that they saw the culture at home had changed. They paddled out at Morro Rock like they had a thousand times before, but were met with a new scene.
“Looking around, there were so many women in the water, I could not believe it,” Joseph said. “I said to myself, we could literally have our own comp.”
From there, the idea for the Diva Cup was born — a competition that fosters a nurturing, welcoming and empowering environment for young girls and women stoked on surfing.
“The hope was that it could be just like fun and safe and collaborative versus really competing against each other,” Joseph said. “More of just were all coming together and doing something new in a safe place.”
The pair, alongside Edmison, took their event and organizational experiences into a new format and hosted their first annual Diva Cup in 2022, founding Femme Futures soon after.
The name of the invitational — a clever nod to the reusable women’s menstrual cup — is also meant to raise awareness of period poverty, which is a lack of access to menstrual products, education and sanitation for women worldwide. This year, the event raised between 30 and 40 boxes of donated menstrual products for Lumina Alliance, Emrick said.
Now in its third year, the Diva Cup has grown significantly. Registration for the event filled up within 24 hours of opening on Sept. 18 — two months ahead of the competition date — with women traveling from all over the state to attend.
“This is the first year that we were really saying, ‘Wow, we should expand,’ because we want this to be more accessible to more women,” Joseph said.
This year, the Diva Cup hosted 12 heats of six to 10 surfers each, including short board, long board, long board pro, a stoke heat for the competition organizers, menehunes — girls under 12 — and legends — women over 50.
But the competition wasn’t actually all women — there was a “men in heat” division for male competitors, but they had to dress in drag over top of their wetsuits and strut their outfits on the red carpet. It’s a “funny play on the experience of a woman being judged on how you look,” Joseph said, but also something to “take the seriousness out of surf competitions.”
“They’re allies, honestly,” she said. “It wouldn’t happen without the women, and it also wouldn’t happen without the support of the men. It’s, like, just as much about honoring everyone coming together for a more equal future, which is so special.”
Starting at the crack of dawn, heats were run back to back every 15 minutes with the chance to catch up to 10 waves per surfer. A panel of four judges scored based on aspects like expression rather than the traditional competition categories like speed and power. The scores of each surfers’ top two waves in the heat were combined for their final score.
“The swell was perfect,” Emrick said of the waves at the Cayucos Pier on the day of the contest, which had been overwhelmingly large and stormy in the days leading up to the event. “It felt like the surf gods blessed us.”
The event aimed to downplay head-to-head competition between women, instead encouraging each surfer to achieve their personal best results.
“You’re not competing against the other girls. You’re just trying to get your best wave,” Emrick said. “It’s really important to us that we’re always focusing on expression and joy, rather than competition and (aggressive) vibes.”
In between heats, surfers could warm up on the beach with the California Sauna Club, enjoy pastries from Bread Bike Bakery, participate in a raffle and get a wellness treatment from the East West Natural Medicine Center. Families and friends watched from the shore, waiting with signs and flowers for their surfers to see when they got out of the water.
“There was just so many levels of healing and fun to this day,” Emrick said. “That’s why we do it.”
Community artists are patrons of the competition, too. This year, Santa Barbara band Queentide performed later in the evening and local Cayucos ceramicist Annika Linder made and donated ceramic diva cups as trophies for all finalists.
“Normally (only) first place gets a trophy,” Emrick said. “Freaking all places get a trophy.”
The day’s festivities spilled over into the night at the Afterglow after party, complete with an awards ceremony, live music, DJs, a silent disco and a screening of surf films.
Emrick said there will “definitely” be a Diva Cup next year, along with community events like Diva surf days leading up to the annual competition, but she noted that the team can’t say much more at this point about how it will look next year.
“It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and we’re gonna do this at a pace that feels right for us, so that we don’t burn out, because that’s very against our culture,” Emrick said.
But one thing was evident from its third successful year — the Diva Cup has become a staple for the entire surfing community on the Central Coast, especially for the women in the water.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
