From Surfing to Swim Safety: Fearless Girls Launches Its First Event in Busan

Fearless Girls Surf Camps is starting with a simple idea: bring women together through surfing, build meaningful friendships, and use those experiences to support swimming opportunities for women and girls around the world. Its first event begins right here in Busan.

On October 10, Fearless Girls will hold its inaugural event at Songjeong Beach, inviting a small group of participants to take part in a free surf lesson followed by a casual beach lunch.

For founder Defne Ezgi, however, the project began long before Busan.

From the classroom to Fearless Girls

Defne is a professor based in Vancouver, Canada, who has spent much of the past decade teaching about climate change and gender inequality.

The idea that eventually became Fearless Girls began taking shape after she became increasingly concerned about drownings in British Columbia, particularly among immigrant communities. That concern followed her into the classroom.

“I started asking my classes how many of them knew how to swim,” Defne says. “None of the women raised their hands.”

For Defne, it raised a larger question about access to swimming skills. She began researching the issue and thinking about ways she could move beyond teaching about inequality and climate-related risks and create something practical.

Her original idea was to establish swim camps providing free lessons to women and girls who might otherwise have limited access to swimming education, particularly in communities vulnerable to water-related natural disasters.

But there was still a major question: how could those programs be funded?

The answer came from an experience Defne was having herself.

Where surfing entered the story

Defne considers herself relatively new to surfing. Her introduction to the surf-camp experience came through a women's camp in Tofino, on Canada's Vancouver Island.

She loved it.

Beyond learning to surf, what stayed with her most was the community that developed around the experience.

“It's definitely the friendships you develop,” she says. “I met so many amazing people at my first surf camp, and I am currently planning a surf trip with one of them.”

That experience gave Defne an idea. Rather than treating the surf camps and her proposed swim programs as unrelated projects, why not connect them?

“I wanted to combine fun with activism by organizing surf camps where women can get together, have fun, learn surfing and do some good in the world at the same time.”

That became the model behind Fearless Girls.

The project is being developed around two connected concepts. Fearless Girls Surf Camps will organize international surf experiences where women can travel, meet one another, and learn or improve their surfing. Defne plans for profits from those experiences to help fund Fearless Girls Swim Camps, providing free swimming lessons for women and girls in underserved communities.

Both sides of the project revolve around something deceptively simple: becoming more capable and confident in the water.

Or, as Defne puts it, “Surfing saves lives!”

Why launch in Busan?

Busan wasn't originally the starting point of a carefully mapped international rollout.

Defne was already planning to come here.

She is visiting Busan while working alongside a group of women who are each developing their own business ventures. As Fearless Girls began taking shape, she discovered another reason the city made sense.

“When I found out that Busan is also a destination for some awesome surfing, I thought it's the perfect place and time for our inaugural event.”

That brings Fearless Girls to Songjeong Beach, one of Busan's best-known surfing areas, for its first public event.

On Saturday, October 10, a group of 10 participants will meet at Surfy Surfy for a free surf lesson beginning at 8:55 AM. Participants are asked to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early.

The lesson will run for approximately two hours. After everyone has had time to shower and change, the group will come back together at around 11:30 AM for a casual bento-style beach lunch.

The surf lesson is limited to 10 participants, but the gathering doesn't necessarily end there. Up to 20 people can join the lunch, giving others interested in Fearless Girls an opportunity to meet Defne and the group even if they aren't able to secure a surf spot.

If the surf lesson fills, Defne plans to maintain a waitlist and contact participants if cancellations create additional openings.

Busan is only the beginning

Fearless Girls is still in its earliest stage. Its website and social channels are being developed, and the October event represents the project's first real-world launch.

From here, Defne's plans become considerably more international.

The first Fearless Girls surf trips are expected to include Tofino, Canada, with camps planned for summer 2027. Mexico is expected to follow in fall and winter 2027–28, with Costa Rica also among the destinations Defne hopes to develop.

On the swim-camp side, she intends to begin in Sri Lanka before eventually expanding the concept to other parts of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Eventually, Defne hopes those two worlds can become even more closely connected. One idea is to develop surf experiences in Sri Lanka that could give participants an opportunity to visit the communities benefiting from Fearless Girls' swimming programs.

For the women joining the surf camps, Defne hopes that creates a different kind of travel experience.

“I want to know that their decision to join a Fearless Girls Surf Camp will help save the lives of women in a different part of the world,” she says. “Their decision to surf matters not only for them but also for these women who will learn the skills to survive water-related natural disasters.”

Those are ambitious plans for a project just getting started.

For now, though, Fearless Girls begins with ten surfboards, a morning at Songjeong Beach, and a group of people coming together in Busan.

Join the inaugural Fearless Girls event

Fearless Girls Free Surf Lesson & Beach Lunch

• 📅 Saturday, October 10, 2026

• ⏰ Surf lesson: 8:55 AM, arrive 10–15 minutes early

• 📍 Surfy Surfy, Songjeong Beach, Busan

• 🏄 Surf lesson: 10 participants

• 🍱 Beach lunch: Around 11:30 AM, up to 20 participants

• 💰 Free

Follow @fearlessgirlscamps on Instagram for updates as the project develops.

This editorial was produced by OurBusan.life as part of a paid promotional partnership with Fearless Girls Surf Camps.