Ladies Shred: A Surf, Skate, and Art Community for Marin Girls

Ladies Shred was dreamt up in 2013 - the work of one Marin native, Lilja Merrill, who almost everyone just calls Lil. Born in San Francisco and raised in Larkspur from the second grade on, Lil has spent well over a decade on boards and more than ten years coaching. She built Ladies Shred to do one thing: help the girls and women of Marin County find their footing in surfing and skateboarding, in a space made for them.

The mission, in the group's own words, is to hold "a safe space for the girls," one that honors "the full spectrum of our contradictions; soft and fierce, silly and determined, confident and doubtful." It is written to be an open door, not a filter. Ladies Shred welcomes girls, women, and LGBTQ riders of every age and skill level, from a six-year-old stepping on a board for the first time to a teen already dropping in at the skatepark. As the mission page puts it, "there's space for you here." For a parent weighing whether their kid is ready, that is the reassuring part: at Ladies Shred, not knowing how yet is the whole starting point.

Kids Classes in Mill Valley: Learning to Ride, Year-Round

Among kids classes in Mill Valley, few of them happen on a skateboard or out in the surf. Beyond the summer, Ladies Shred keeps its community going all year through a few different ways for a child to start riding or keep at it:

• Private lessons. Families can book one-on-one or small-group surf and skate lessons with Lil or another coach, paced to the rider in front of them. The approach is the same one that runs through everything Ladies Shred does: practical skills taught with patience and plenty of repetition, so a nervous beginner and a confident returner each get what they need.
• After-school board clubs. During the school year, Ladies Shred runs after-school groups where kids ride together with a coach, turning an ordinary weekday afternoon into time on a board with friends.
• Ladies Skate Night. This is where the whole community began. Lil has co-hosted Ladies Skate Night for years at Proof Lab in Tam Junction, a low-key evening where girls and women skate together without an audience. It is where coach Ava Glasgow first found her footing. "I found a beautiful community of supportive skater chicks that helped me learn without the intimidation of being the only girl at a crowded skate park," Ava writes on the Ladies Shred site.

The coaches themselves tell you a lot about the place. Ava grew up on a sailboat on the Sausalito waterfront and now brings both skating and art to camp. Katy started skating in her forties, inspired by her own kids, and now hosts skate night on her own. Rahma, who grew up in Hawaii and coaches in San Francisco, describes it as "a blessing to learn from others, and help pass on the knowledge I've been given." Together they model something a young rider rarely sees: women of all ages, still learning, still falling, still showing up.

Kids Camps in Mill Valley: A Week of Surf, Skate, and Create

When school lets out, Ladies Shred runs its flagship, the Surf, Skate, Create Camp, one of the more distinctive kids camps in Mill Valley. Weeklong sessions welcome campers ages 6 to 17, and the rhythm of the week is simple and repeats: Mondays and Wednesdays are skate days, Tuesdays and Thursdays are surf days, and Friday is for creating. Each day runs from 9 to 3, and every group gathers first at the Mill Valley Middle School back lot before loading into the van. Skate days head out to spots like Hamilton Skate Park in Novato and long, rolling practice sessions along the bike path. Surf days unfold at Calle De Embarcadero in Stinson Beach. Friday's create day is a chance to slow down, make art, and reflect together on the skills of the week.

What holds the week together is less about tricks than about how a kid feels on a board. Every session opens with stretching and slow movement, and campers practice naming their fears and breathing through them, building body awareness, focus, teamwork, and the habit of caring for their own gear. It is not necessary to know how to skate or surf to come. Lil teaches the practical skills from the ground up, and experienced riders get plenty of guidance to keep growing.

Lil describes what the all-girls setting makes possible. "What I have witnessed as a direct result of holding space for 'just' us girls is this: My kids feel safe to be themselves, older kids become leaders to the youngins, youngins reteach the older kids to be silly and have fun," she told the Mill Valley Chamber's blog in 2023. "A small group of eclectic ages is radical. We become a team the moment we all gather in the van, confidence and pride in abilities soar." Her motto, posted plainly on the coaches page, sums up the spirit: "Give it a try! and then give it another one."

Teens who have aged up have a place here too. Older campers ages 14 to 17 who have ridden with Lil before can return as counselors-in-training, helping guide the younger kids, keeping an eye on the group, and taking on more responsibility, all at half the camp rate. It is a real step from camper to leader, and a natural next chapter for a rider who is not ready to leave the community behind.

An Accessible, Welcoming Place for Families

Access is built into how Ladies Shred prices its camps. Every summer week is offered on a three-tier, choose-what-fits scale. A family can select the "Community Love" rate when a lower cost helps, the "Standard Rate" that reflects what it actually costs to run the week, or the "Super Star" rate, which, as the tiers themselves explain, helps "make our camp more accessible" and "allow more girls access to camp." The counselor-in-training spots come at half price. No prior experience is required, and instruction and the loan of a board are part of the week, so a family can try a board sport without buying the gear first.

Safety sits underneath all of it. Lil is a nationally registered EMT, lifeguard certified, a wilderness first responder, and trained in surf trauma response, with a 200-hour yoga teacher training behind her slow-movement practice. For parents, that means the person teaching your child to paddle out or drop in has thought as hard about keeping her safe as about the ride itself. Families can find Ladies Shred's current camp sessions on Enrichment.kids, where you can see what is coming up, filter by age, and register in a few clicks.

Where Confidence and Community Flourish

What lingers after a week with Ladies Shred is a feeling as much as a new skill: the quiet in the van on the way to the beach, the cheer when a kid stands up on a board for the first time, the ease of being one of the girls instead of the only girl. Campers leave having practiced courage in small, real doses, and parents leave having watched their kids try something genuinely hard in a place that had their back the whole way.

Confidence, community, accessibility, courage, creativity, Ladies Shred embodies all these values for Marin County parents and kids. If your daughter has been eyeing the skatepark from the sidelines, or you have wondered whether she might love the water, the coaches meet every rider exactly where she is. Come find the van, pull on a wetsuit, and see what it feels like to shred alongside a crew that is learning right there with her.