We are excited to introduce Amara as the 2027 Teen Camp Director. Amara first learned about Maui Surfer Girls as a teen herself while taking surf lessons on a family trip to Maui, and then she returned to attend the Teen Camp in 2017. 

After spending one year as a CIT, Amara returned as a Fun Facilitator for a few years, then Van Driver, then the Co-Director in 2026. 

Amara attended Gonzaga University, in Spokane, WA, where she studied English Lit, Sociology, and Leadership. When she’s not running Teen Camp, she works as the Department Head of Guest Services at the Bridger Bowl ski resort in Bozeman, Montana.

When we asked Amara what kept her coming back to teen camp, she replied, “what I love most about MSG is the family, the Ohana, that it provides. From 16 years old and at camp for the first time, to 26 years old and coming back to do it all again, I have always been made to feel welcome. Over the past decade I have made friends and chosen a family that has, and always will, love me exactly as I am. There is no better feeling in the world than to have a group of women cheer you on time and time again. It’s this feeling, this authenticity, that keeps me coming back. Maui Surfer Girls has changed my life, and it means the world to me that I now get to help other girls find the same feeling and ohana.”

We also asked Amara about her favorite camp memory, and she shared that “ it is SO HARD to pick just one favorite memory from teen camp! I have countless memories of laughing so hard my belly aches and cheeks are wet with tears, of catching a wave and having five other girls scream and cheer my name like it was the best thing they’d ever seen, of feeling scared and overwhelmed and having a shoulder to lay my head on. If I have to pick just one, the memory that I’ll choose to talk about here is one from 2019. I was a CIT (counselor in training) and after a couple weeks of camp go-go-going, I was feeling a little worn out, and on this day in particular, very camera shy. When our photographer pulled the CIT’s aside for some portraits, tears started to pour out of me. My eighteen-year-old self felt deeply self conscious and too vulnerable in front of the camera. This moment was important for me, and is one I still carry with me to this day, because when I let my inner critique bring me down, everyone came together to build me back up. My fellow CIT’s came close to give me hugs and the photographer spoke so kindly to me, pointing out beauty where I saw nothing but flaws. Just writing this down I still find myself tearing up. To be loved by friends like that is just something you never forget.”