The Women Making Fuerteventura More Inclusive: Meet Pilar Beneito and Mariona Masdemont

Fuerteventura is known for its sweeping beaches, volcanic landscapes and year-round waves. But access to the island’s natural beauty—and to the confidence, community and freedom that outdoor activities can create—is not automatic. It takes people willing to rethink equipment, environments and expectations.

During a visit to Fuerteventura in January 2025, I met two of the women doing exactly that. Pilar Beneito, founder of the adaptive surf school Fuerte Tribu, and Mariona Masdemont, co-founder of the non-profit organisation Play and Train, are helping make sport, employment and island life more accessible to people with disabilities.

Their work overlaps, particularly in adaptive surfing, but each organisation has developed its own approach. Fuerte Tribu grew from Pilar’s belief in the ocean as a place for connection, confidence and community. Play and Train combines inclusive sports with training and employment programmes designed to support people well beyond a single session or holiday.

Pilar Beneito: building community through the ocean

I met Pilar at La Central (opens in a new tab), her husband’s wheelchair-accessible restaurant and café in Lajares. Over a relaxed afternoon, we talked about adaptive water sports, accessible beaches and the journey that brought her from Argentina to Fuerteventura.

Pilar began surfing in Argentina, where she developed a strong connection to the sea and joined a surf scene that still included very few women. Surfing soon became a way of seeing the world. It inspired her to travel in search of waves and eventually led her to Fuerteventura.

At the same time, she trained in social work. Fuerte Tribu emerged from what she describes as a “fusion” of those two parts of her life: her passion for surfing and her commitment to social inclusion.

The idea was initially more philosophical than practical. Pilar wanted to explore surfing as a tool for community building and personal development, but she soon learned that the project also needed a concrete structure. The team developed its adaptive surf programmes step by step, translating that early vision into safe, practical sessions without losing the belief at its heart: connecting with the ocean can change a person’s understanding of what is possible.

Pilar’s route into adaptive surfing included working with children with a range of access needs, training in Santander and volunteering with Disfrutar del Mar, an organisation working with autistic children. She also collaborated with Mariona Masdemont when Mariona brought her experience of adaptive sport to Fuerteventura.

Today, Fuerte Tribu has a core team of around eight or nine people. Some, including Rafa—one of its earliest members—have worked alongside Pilar for more than a decade. Their expertise goes far beyond helping someone onto a surfboard. It includes understanding how each participant communicates, identifying the right support, managing safety and creating an experience that remains enjoyable rather than clinical.

Much of the work also happens away from the water. Pilar now focuses primarily on management and organisation: coordinating schedules, speaking with families and handling the logistics that make every session possible. It is the less visible side of accessibility, but an essential one. A good experience begins long before anyone reaches the beach.

Adaptive surfing is not only about standing up

Fuerte Tribu works with children and adults with sensory, intellectual and physical disabilities. There is no single version of an adaptive surf session because there is no single type of surfer. The team begins with the individual: their goals, experience, way of communicating and relationship with the water.

“It’s not just about standing on the board,” Pilar explained. “It’s about feeling the flow and the ocean’s power, and that can boost confidence in any part of life.”

Equipment is adapted according to each surfer’s requirements. Local board shapers help create wider boards or adjust the rocker—the board’s curvature—to provide the appropriate stability and movement. The team may also use flotation aids, life jackets, helmets and balance supports. Warm-ups and balance games on land allow participants to become familiar with the board and explore how their bodies move before entering the sea.

Progress is gradual, and trust matters. Pilar’s advice to apprehensive parents and first-time adult surfers is to work with trained professionals who prioritise safety and respond to the individual. Sometimes, she says, children are ready to reach the water before their parents feel ready to watch them go.

Fuerte Tribu also welcomes families in which a parent has a disability and the child does not, or vice versa. Surfing becomes a shared activity rather than something organised around one family member’s diagnosis. The objective is not to force everybody into the same technique; it is to create the support that allows them to experience the ocean together.

For Pilar, the feeling of “flow” is central. Water demands constant awareness and adjustment. When the surfer, board and wave begin to move together, the experience can produce a powerful sense of balance and agency.

“You realise you’re working with the ocean rather than against it,” she said. “You have this moment where everything aligns: your body, the wave, the board.”

That connection is one reason people return to surfing. It is physical and emotional at once: a chance to develop skills, take responsibility, experience risk with the right support and find a place within a community.

The organisation’s idea of inclusion extends beyond disability. Fuerte Tribu also works with unaccompanied young migrants who have arrived on the island in vulnerable circumstances. Through its volunteering programme, young migrants and people with disabilities can learn to surf, spend time at the beach and build relationships with other members of the local community. The beach becomes common ground—a place where friendships can form and social barriers can begin to shift.

Mariona Masdemont: from the mountains to the sea

I spoke with Mariona Masdemont during a visit to the colourful CoLiving Surfing Colors space in Corralejo. She co-founded Play and Train with Silvana Mestre in 2008, initially in La Molina in the Catalan Pyrenees. The organisation began by making snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding more accessible to people with disabilities, then expanded to the Canary Islands and developed programmes centred on the sea and the natural environment.

Mariona’s involvement in adaptive sport began long before Play and Train. She worked as a ski instructor, then as a guide for a blind skier and later as a coach. Her career also took her to the International Paralympic Committee, where she worked in results management during the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

Those experiences reinforced her understanding of sport as something larger than fitness. It can influence identity, personal growth and social connection. When she and Silvana created Play and Train, they wanted to combine inclusion with sporting excellence—not simply offer an occasional adapted activity.

That principle still shapes the organisation. Play and Train aims to create complete, accessible experiences in which individuals, families and groups can train, relax and connect. In Fuerteventura, its main activities include surfing, swimming, paddleboarding and dance. Participants range from people entering the sea for the first time to experienced athletes who want to continue training with the appropriate equipment and support.

The location and pace are adapted as carefully as the equipment. A first encounter with the sea might take place in calm water, with time to build familiarity and confidence. More experienced participants can develop their technique or simply enjoy the sport in an environment designed with access in mind.

Visitors to the Canary Islands may also encounter sports including paracanoe, para triathlon, para swimming, table tennis and para rowing, although Play and Train’s local work is more closely connected to canoeing than rowing.

Mariona’s favourite places to share with visitors include Grandes Playas in Corralejo, with its broad beaches and waves, and El Cotillo, particularly at sunset. For her, the sea is one of Fuerteventura’s greatest treasures—and access to it should be planned as part of island life, not treated as a special exception.

Access beyond the beach

Play and Train’s work in Fuerteventura does not stop at sport. One of its most important programmes focuses on employment for people with disabilities. At the time of our conversation, the organisation was supporting around 120 people from across the island through weekly training, coaching and job-search guidance.

Fuerteventura’s economy is closely tied to tourism, so many of those connections involve hotels, restaurants and other local businesses. Some roles are seasonal or short-term, but each opportunity can help a participant gain experience, develop professional skills and build greater financial independence. The programme also asks employers to take an active role by creating workplaces in which disabled employees can contribute and progress.

This work reveals an important thread running through both Play and Train and Fuerte Tribu: empowerment is not produced by telling someone to be confident. It grows when environments are accessible, support is reliable and people have genuine opportunities to practise skills, make decisions and participate in community life.

Mariona’s long-term vision is therefore broader than increasing the number of individual activities. She wants disabled visitors and residents to feel welcome for a whole holiday, a training week or an extended stay. She also wants Play and Train to deepen its partnerships with local organisations so accessibility becomes embedded in everyday life across the island.

A more accessible Fuerteventura is built together

Pilar and Mariona approach their work from different starting points: one through social work and a lifelong relationship with surfing, the other through adaptive sport, Paralympic experience and a model spanning recreation and employment. Yet they share a clear understanding of what meaningful inclusion requires.

It requires trained people, suitable equipment and careful planning. It also requires room for joy, ambition, friendship and the simple pleasure of being in the water. Adaptive sport is not a lesser version of sport, and accessibility is not a favour added after everything else has been designed. Both belong at the centre of how activities, workplaces and destinations are created.

The work of Fuerte Tribu and Play and Train also demonstrates the value of local networks. Surf instructors, board shapers, families, volunteers, coaches, employers and community organisations all have a part to play. No single person can make an island accessible, but people working together can transform what is available—and who is expected to take part.

Fuerteventura’s landscape is already extraordinary. Pilar Beneito and Mariona Masdemont are helping ensure that more people can experience it on their own terms, while building skills, relationships and opportunities that continue long after a day at the beach.

Practical information

To learn more about their work, upcoming programmes and activities in Fuerteventura, visit the official websites of Play and Train (opens in a new tab) and Fuerte Tribu (opens in a new tab). Both organisations provide further information about their sports programmes, along with contact details for anyone interested in participating, collaborating or volunteering.