130AUG23_CoverNoUPC

Ready, Set, Hang Ten

Cape Cod Life  /  August 2023 /

Writer: Christina Galt

Ready, Set, Hang Ten

130AUG23_CoverNoUPC

Cape Cod Life  /  August 2023 /

Writer: Christina Galt


Since 2011, local surf school, Sugar Surf has been empowering women and encouraging the community to get out on the water.

“I was born a beach girl,” smiles Cape Cod native Katy Weeks. And how could she not be—growing up near the ocean, surrounded by surf and a community who seems to always be drawn to the beach? Although she was exposed to the local surf community at an early age, the now seasoned surfer didn’t find herself bitten by the surfing bug until she was in her teens. 

Photos provided by Sugar Surf

Weeks remembers when she was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, there were not many women surfing, “It was just me and a few of my friends, Rachel Finn, Mercy Reed and a few other women, but after a while we started to notice more and more girls getting involved. More people in general, right around the Blue Crush [popular 2000s surf movie] era.” Noticing that a lot of people they were sharing waves with hadn’t learned the local etiquette, rules or the “pecking order in surfing,” Weeks says, “We thought, ‘Maybe we should start a surf school, and see how it goes?’” The goal was to share everything that they had learned about the lifestyle over the years from being in the surf industry and traveling to some of the most popular surfing destinations around the world. And thus, she founded Sugar Surf as the head instructor, with her friend Rachel Finn, in 2011.

Originally, she shares that Sugar Surf began as a way to get more women in the water, but they ended up opening the lessons to...

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Christina Galt

Christina Galt is the Digital Editor at Cape Cod Life Publications. Born and raised on the Cape, Christina has always had a love for the ocean and everything "Cape Cod." She found herself the perfect home away from home at the University of Rhode Island and double majored in Sociology and Gender & Women’s Studies. After graduating, Christina came back to the Cape and started her journey at Cape Cod Life. She spends most of her free time with her family, especially her chocolate lab Sadie, and enjoys spending summers on her family’s boat.