Meghan "Meg" Hanebutt
(she/her, they/them) Director of Operations
Where are you from, where are your peoples from? Born and raised in Delaware. My people come from the Philippines, Ireland, and Wales!
Career background(s) prior to CSP: K-8 teacher and school principal, photographer, graphic designer, yoga and mindfulness instructor
What is your first memory/introduction to surfing/board sports? One of my first memories of surfing was when I was about 13, paddling out with my neighbors (all boys) on a big day at Assateague Island in Maryland. We paddled and paddled and paddled for what felt like forever (definitely mental preparation for surfing OB!) and one of them turned around and said to me, “Meg do ya feel that? That’s your shoulders tearing new muscles to make you stronger!”
In retrospect he was definitely mansplaining the paddle out to me, but I let him get away with it because I had a huge crush him. Today I’d give it right back to him!
What is your dream surf destination? Why? I’d love to go back to El Salvador or Bali. Dreamiest of dreams is to one day surf one or all of my homeland islands in the Philippines!
What is your “why”, for contributing to CSP? I surfed for ten years before I knew another female or bipoc surfer. I worked in a surf shop in high school, and other than three movies that I knew of (Dear & Yonder, Blue Crush, and Soul Surfer) and the standard bikini shot in mags, women were underrepresented in surf culture in the 90s. BIPOC, and specifically BIPOC women were pretty much completely unrepresented. I’m here to do my part in representing women and BIPOC in surfing, and more importantly, to center and lift up marginalized folks and voices in this organization, in the Bay Area surf community, and in overall surf industry. That goes for not only who’s out in the lineup, but also who’s doing the instructing, who’s in front of and behind the camera, who’s shaping surfboards, and who’s in the C-suite of orgs in the industry.
