In her beautiful, meditative new film, “Sliding into the Light,” which screens July 16 at the Honolulu Surf Film Festival at the Doris Duke Theatre, director and surfer Crystal Thornburg-Homcy says some of her earliest memories of growing up in Hawaii are of riding on the front of her mother’s surfboard.

As she glides across long, mellow North Shore waves on her longboard in the six-minute film, co-directed by Simon Beins, Thornburg-Homcy reflects on the pain and fear she’s faced in her efforts to become a mother herself, and how surfing — and her mom — “taught me to get back up and try again” after heavy sets (and setbacks) have held her down.

“Sliding” is one of eight shorts by filmmakers from all over the world being shown together in “Surf like a Girl,” a lineup curated by Sarah Fang, program coordinator.

“Being female, I had an early goal to include content that speaks to the female surfing experience,” Fang said.

“Having a surf film festival without featuring women surfers is not an option,” agreed Taylour Chang, theater director and avid bodysurfer.

Both Doris Duke staffers are local girls, and they’ve added a panel featuring Thornburg-Homcy and two other local women surfers — Karin Ingersoll, author of “Waves of Knowing: A Seascape Epistemology,” published last year by Duke University Press, and Mindy Pennybacker, “In the Lineup” columnist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser — to talk story with the audience after the 103-minute program.

Topics will include women and surfing, surfing and the environment, and whatever else comes up.

‘SURF LIKE A GIRL’

Part of the 2017 Honolulu Surf Film Festival

>> Where: Doris Duke Theatre, 901 Kinau St.

>> When: 7:30 p.m. July 16; followed immediately by panel discussion (film festival continues through Aug. 2)

>> Cost: $12 general admission; $10 for HMA members; free for those 18 and under

>> Info: honolulumuseum.org/events/films/16376-surf_girl