The Girl Behind the Groove Girls
Steph Teixeira started the Groove Girls to meet other girls who surfed, and with so much traction and support around the Gold Coast, it has quickly grown into so much more.
By Rachael Tilly
Steph Teixeira looked around the lineups on the Gold Coast and, like most lineups, had the realization that she was greatly outnumbered by men in the water. Thus, she established the Groove Girls, an all-women surf group born out of a desire to have a community of women to surf with and encourage more women to paddle out. Since its establishment in mid 2019, it has attracted a loyal following and has received a lot of attention including Channel 7 news and brands such as Billabong.
Steph surfing on one of their many morning surfs
“I saw the need for a group like this and felt since I had a deeper passion for the cause, it was sort of my obligation to make a difference and take the leap,” says Steph. “I talked to quite a few girls around the coast asking why they don’t surf or get in the water more often and the overwhelmingly common answer was that they didn’t want to look like kooks or get in the way of others who could surf. All girls agreed that if they had a group to be in the lineup with, they would surf more; so with my passion for it and the interest from girls around me, I thought it was worth a shot.”
Steph has done more than excel at creating a space for women to surf. Over 700 women are a part of the Groove Girls on Facebook and approx. 40 girls usually show up for their weekly surfs (before COVID-19). More recently, the Groove Girls has been expanding from just a surf group and has been taking shape into its own brand. Steph has been busy designing and manufacturing bikinis, wetsuits, t-shirts, and sweaters.
The Groove Girls all repping the limited wetsuit line designed by Steph
“We’ve received so much support from the community of girls around the Groove Girls to experiment in making swimwear and apparel, it’s always something I’ve wanted to try since I was young, so this platform has been a great opportunity to test the waters. I’ve been so focused on building my photography business, Cisca Studio, so it has been a lot of juggling but working with the Groove Girls has actually helped me practice and learn about building a business. It has turned into so much more than what I first thought”
“The community of the Gold Coast has been supportive to us in the water. I make sure that we do our best to stay respectful because I know it can be overwhelming when a group of 15 paddle out all at the same time. I’m very particular in the spots that we pick for our group surfs and have been running online surf etiquette courses so that the girls are best equipped in the lineup. I want to encourage more girls to surf but I don’t want our growth to ever be a bummer for other surfers.”
Photo by Steph ~ @cisca.studio
“Fortunately, most everyone has been super stoked around our growth. Our biggest haters and backlash have come from other women of the Gold Coast claiming the wave as their own and frustrated with our mission. It’s a shame to see because we are just trying to support women’s surfing as a whole so to receive that negativity is a bummer, but the positive energy around us is so much more and we will keep moving with it.”
On a personal note, I first met Steph at the start of the year up on the Sunshine Coast with the whole Groove Girls gang. Observing from down the beach, I thought to myself, who are these girls, they look like they are having so much fun. As I started to interact with them, those thoughts only proved to be truer as these girls really were the most stoked girls to be in the water and sharing waves with each other.
Steph has visions to expand around the country but is still focused on her hometown community of the Gold Coast. For any other girls inspired to create something similar in their area, she leaves us with this note:
Early morning group surf
“The Groove Girls started out for me in just finding other girls to surf with and through it I have made some of my best friends. If you’re looking to start something similar and don’t know where to start, just start with the girls directly around you. Get your friends out surfing and get their friends to come along as well. It’s important to establish your message and values around the group early on and figure out how to gain growth while keeping those values. For us, our growth success has been largely around the content we have been able to create from our group of girls as well as the message of fun and community that is clearly intertwined through all of our posts and photos. Finally, while we have had a lot of positive natural growth, it doesn’t come without lots of hard work put in behind the scenes so don’t give up if it feels like hard work, it’s all part of the process”.
Running her own photography businesses, establishing a community surf group as a passion project, and experimenting in the swimwear and apparel business, Steph is a walking example of what passion and hard work can produce. If you’re near the Gold Coast, you can check her out on one of her many platforms: