"To build a strong, supportive community of water-women by creating a safe and welcoming space where women of all backgrounds can come together." That's how Marisol Godinez, co-organizer of Women on Waves, described the contest's mission this spring. She was answering a question about a statue, not about her surf contest.
The statue is "To Honor the Women of the Water," a bronze female surfer that Capitola City Council approved unanimously on July 23 for the entrance to Esplanade Park. When the project team picked Capitola as its new home, the contest held on Capitola Beach every October was one of the reasons they gave. That contest is back on Oct. 17 and 18. Most local events just happen in town. This one helped decide where a 17- or 18-foot monument will stand for decades.
What the 2026 weekend actually looks like
Women on Waves is produced by Ola Chica, and this year's contest is on Capitola Beach. Its roots go back to 1996. That makes 2026 its 30th year since the founding, though the contest has had breaks and changed organizers along the way. Good Times credits Barry Hamby as instrumental in starting it and Zeuf Hesson as an early founding member who helped bring it to public attention.
The age divisions have names that show what kind of event this is:
| Division |
Ages |
| Giggly Groms |
5–9 |
| Sandy Girls |
10–14 |
| Swell Seasters |
15–19 |
| Salty Squad |
20–29 |
| Cheeky Chicas |
30–39 |
| Longboard Ladies |
40–49 |
| Sea Señoras |
50–59 |
| Legends |
60+ |
| Novice and Fancy Novice |
10–100 |
| Capitola Queens |
All ages, advanced, capped at six |
The gap between the youngest and oldest divisions is more than 50 years. The Novice divisions run from age 10 to 100. Capitola Queens is the only advanced bracket, and it takes just six surfers. Nearly the whole event is built for newcomers and lifelong amateurs, with very little room set aside for the top competitors.
Surfing is only part of the weekend. The program also has an open-water swim, a boogie-board competition, a two-mile stand-up-paddle relay and an ocean-themed festival and marketplace. The swim is on Sunday, Oct. 18, with half-mile and one-mile courses. Every swimmer has to be able to cover at least a half-mile.
Surf registration is $120 and swim registration runs $85 to $95, both through Humanitix. If you're signing up this late, know that the surf contest stopped giving refunds after Oct. 1, 2026. When Tracey Weiss previewed last year's event in the Sentinel, she invited spectators to watch from Capitola Beach. The current event materials don't list any admission fee for spectators.
The money goes somewhere new each year. This year's beneficiary is Esperanza Community Farms. In 2025, the organizers' newsletter said fundraising went to Black Surf Santa Cruz.
How a Pleasure Point project ended up facing Capitola Beach
The statue didn't start in Capitola. Here's how it got there:
- February 2026. Lookout reported the proposal for an undeveloped stretch of East Cliff bluff called the Dirt Farm, which overlooks the surf break known as Jack's, or 38th.
- Spring 2026. Santa Cruz County approved the statue at that site. Some residents said the bluff should stay undeveloped, and one resident appealed the approval.
- May 2026. Project founder Kari Lochhead met Capitola Councilmember Gerry Jensen through a mutual friend. That led to a meeting with Jensen, Mayor Margaux Morgan and city staff. On May 26, the team announced the Capitola Esplanade as its new site.
- July 23, 2026. Council approved the artwork and told staff to work with the applicant and County Park Friends on fundraising and an installation plan.
Lochhead was clear about why Capitola made sense. She told Santa Cruz Local the pivot was natural because the Village is a known destination and the home of Women on Waves every October. She told Lookout that the Esplanade would tie locals and visitors to the area's surfing history, "especially with Capitola Junior Guards and the Women on Waves community surf contest held in the same area each year." Mayor Morgan named the same two programs in her August column.
Geography helped too. Capitola's five surf breaks were inducted into the Santa Cruz World Surfing Reserve in 2025, which now runs about seven miles of coast. The male surfer statue has stood on West Cliff Drive since 1992. A female figure at Esplanade Park would put a statue at each end of the reserve. If you've been following the work on West Cliff Drive, you already know the other end.
The same artists are returning. Thomas Marsh will sculpt the figure, and Brian W. Curtis will handle the pedestal and the bronze version of the surfboard. The two of them made the West Cliff statue. The rest of the team includes surfboard shaper Bob Pearson, lead designer Alison Hobbs and foundation and concrete designer Tom Ralston. Bob Pearson's daughter Kaila, who grew up surfing on the west side, told Santa Cruz Local the statue "will serve as motivation to young girls." Those are the girls in the Giggly Groms and Sandy Girls brackets on this year's list.
What's decided and what isn't
The site and the approval are settled. So are the artists, and so is the funding model: private money raised through County Park Friends. Here's what isn't settled yet:
- Size. Lookout describes a 17-foot bronze, and Santa Cruz Local reported 18 feet. Either way, it will be the tallest thing at that end of the Esplanade.
- Cost. None of the coverage gives a budget or a fundraising total. After the July vote, the team was still getting ready to raise money.
- Timing. The team is aiming for spring or late fall 2027, to stay clear of the Village's summer events and crowds. The city's July update said the installation plan was still being worked out.
- The "third in the world" claim. Lochhead and Mayor Morgan both say it will be only the third statue of its kind. One earlier example is the life-size bronze of Joyce Hoffman at Watermen's Plaza in Dana Point, which ABC7 called the first statue of its kind in the U.S. honoring a female surfer.
A late-fall 2027 install would land close to the contest's usual October dates. If the team hits that window, the statue and the event it was partly placed for could share the same few weeks on the same stretch of beach.
The Esplanade itself is changing too. In her Aug. 8 column, the mayor said the city was still taking public input on the Esplanade Park Coastal Access Enhancement and Adaptation Plan. No construction schedule has been announced. That survey is under "Projects" at cityofcapitola.gov, and it's the most direct way to have a say in the space around the statue.
The rest of October on the same sand
Women on Waves falls in the middle of a busy month at the Village end of the beach:
- Oct. 11, 7:30–9 p.m. The Monte Foundation Fireworks Extravaganza. The organizers describe it as just fireworks, with no tickets, booths or vendors.
- Oct. 17–18. Women on Waves, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days, according to the Capitola Village calendar.
- Oct. 25, 2–3 p.m. The Capitola Village Halloween Parade. Line up at 1:30 p.m. in the lower Beach & Village Parking Lot 2, behind the police department. A Central Fire engine leads the parade, with music from the Soquel High Senior Band.
If you drive in for any of these, this is the last October at current parking rates. On Sept. 25, Council approved a 50-cent increase starting Jan. 1, 2027. Village and Cliff Drive parking will go to $2.50 an hour, and the City Hall lots will go to $1.50. The statue, whenever it arrives, will be another stop for people already paying those rates on their way to the Esplanade.
I keep track of these Village changes because they shape what Capitola feels like to live in, long before they show up anywhere else. If the Esplanade plan, the statue or the 2027 parking changes raise questions about your corner of Capitola, I'm happy to talk them through. Erica Trinchero is a call or a consultation away.
