Reina Calafia, Mexico’s only surfing competition exclusively for girls and women, and the second of its kind in Latin America, returns to La Fortuna beach this year on October 2nd to 4th for its third edition. The Mexican Surfing Federation and the Baja California Sur Surf Association endorse it. And according to reporting by Joselyn Juárez of El Sudcaliforniano, keeping it alive each year has not been easy.
How Reina Calafia Got Its Start
A contest built from a gathering, Reina Calafia began in 2024 in San José del Cabo, organized by four women: Daniela Ramos, Mónica Olivares, Alejandra Castellanos, and María Echeverría. Mónica Olivares and Alejandra Castellanos are mothers of young competitive surfers. Ramos is also the only female coach and level 3 judge in Baja California Sur endorsed by the International Surfing Association, with more than two decades of experience. She got her own start on the beaches of Oaxaca, where she has said men dominated the sport. Nine years into coaching in Los Cabos, she credits Reina Calafia with helping make surfing a safer space for girls, not just here, but for competitors who now travel in from other states and countries to compete.
This Year’s Field And Format
This year’s field includes more than 60 surfers from Nayarit, Oaxaca, Colima, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, the United States, and Canada. Categories include shortboard, longboard, and softboard. It will feature parasurfing, artistic, and cultural exhibitions, and a small bazaar where competitors sell their own products between heats.
A Viral Post Leads To Real Support
On August 19th, Ramos posted a video on the event’s social media raising concerns about a lack of sponsorship. It drew more than 50 comments, mostly from local brands pledging support. That post did what most viral moments don’t: it led somewhere. Ramos connected with Lucía Silvestre, operations director of the Baja California Sur Sports Institute, who stated that the agency will provide judging across all three categories this year and that the state sports delegation remains committed to hosting the 2027 National Surfing Championship in BCS.
That’s meaningful support. It is also not the same as sustained sponsorship, and a one-woman social media post shouldn’t be the funding strategy for the only event of its kind in the country.
Sustaining The Movement And How To Help
This matters beyond one weekend. Baja California Sur has spent recent years laying a foundation for Mexican surf talent. Reina Calafia is part of that. One of its junior competitors, 14-year-old María, already receives a $3,000-peso scholarship from the Los Cabos Municipal Sports Institute (INDEM), seven years into a sport she started under Ramos’s coaching. Programs like this build an actual foundation for a surfing community, not just a tourism surfing spot, and these communities don’t run on goodwill alone.
The event also runs on a zero-plastics policy, asking attendees to bring their own containers rather than generate waste at La Fortuna, a detail organizer Mónica Olivares insists on, because she says respecting the beach is part of what the festival teaches.
Reina Calafia is currently looking for local businesses interested in sponsorship. They can reach the organizing team through Reina Calafia’s official Instagram and Facebook pages, where Ramos posted her original video for support. Spectators are welcome at La Fortuna beach, Cabo del Este, October 2nd to 4th. Vendors and local makers can inquire about the bazaar-style market that runs alongside the competition.
Every contribution counts. A sponsorship from one restaurant, one shop, one dive outfit covering a category prize, or a day of food for volunteers is the difference between “we’ll see if we can do this again next year” and a fourth edition that doesn’t require another viral video to survive.
Baja California Sur is considered a surf state. Reina Calafia is proof that the next generation of that identity is already in the water. Whether it stays there is, at this point, a question for the rest of us.
By Naailah Auladin, based on an article by Joselyn Juárez, El Sudcaliforniano. Photos courtesy of Andrés Navarro. – @naailahauladin
@reinacalafia_surffest – Instagram
