OCEANSIDE, Ore. — With just 360 residents, no stoplights, and a single general store, this Tillamook County beach town isn't where most people would expect to find one of the Oregon coast's liveliest fitness communities. But three nights a week, the Oceanside Community Center fills with 30 to 50 people salsa-stepping and merengue-turning through 90-minute Zumba sessions that have drawn dancers from as far as Tillamook and Lincoln City.
Maria Santos, a former Portland dance instructor who moved to Oceanside in 2019, launched the program with eight participants in the community center's basement. By early 2024, attendance had tripled, and Santos added a second instructor, 28-year-old Jaylen Okonkwo, to meet demand.
"I thought I'd be teaching small classes to retirees," Santos said. "Now I have fishermen, nurses, teenagers, and vacation renters all in the same room. The age range is 16 to 74."
From Basement Classes to a Coastal Destination
Santos's first Oceanside class, held in January 2020, drew mostly locals curious about the newcomer. When in-person gatherings resumed after pandemic restrictions lifted, something unexpected happened: visitors started returning to the coast specifically for the sessions.
"I booked my weekend around it," said Dana Reeves, 42, a dental hygienist from Salem who has attended Santos's Saturday morning class monthly for two years. "I've tried Zumba in Portland and Eugene. There's something about this room—the windows fog up from all the bodies, you can hear the ocean if the music stops, and nobody cares if you mess up."
The Oceanside Community Center, a converted 1930s schoolhouse on Pacific Avenue, rents its main hall to Santos for $35 per session. Classes run Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. Drop-in fees are $12; a 10-class punch card costs $100. No registration is required.
Who Shows Up, and Why
The crowd is a mix that reflects the Oregon coast's seasonal rhythms. Winter classes skew local, with Tillamook County residents making up roughly 70 percent of attendance. From June through August, Santos estimates that 40 percent of participants are tourists or second-home owners.
Okonkwo, who joined Santos in September 2023, teaches the Thursday evening slot and has introduced Afrobeats and dancehall tracks alongside the Latin pop and reggaeton that dominate Santos's playlists.
"I grew up in Beaverton doing Nigerian dance at family parties," Okonkwo said. "Zumba lets me bring that into a room where most people have never heard Burna Boy. By week three, they're singing along."
For Rick Delgado, a 61-year-old commercial fisherman from Garibaldi, the Tuesday class has replaced physical therapy sessions he started after a shoulder injury in 2021.
"My doctor told me to keep the joint moving," Delgado said. "I was not going to do water aerobics with the seniors in Tillamook. This is the first exercise I've stuck with in 20 years."
Sustainability on a Shoestring Budget
Santos and Okonkwo have made modest environmental efforts part of the program's operations. Participants are encouraged to bring reusable water bottles; a refill station was installed at the community center in 2022 with a $400 grant from the Tillamook County Wellness Coalition. Santos also carpools with regulars from Tillamook and Bay City to reduce the number of vehicles making the 15-minute coastal drive.
"We're not saving the planet one squat at a time," Santos said. "But in a town this small, little things add up. We probably keep 200 plastic bottles out of the trash every month."
What's Next
Santos is exploring whether demand exists for a third weekly class and a monthly Sunday session at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds to accommodate dancers from inland communities. She has also begun training a third instructor, a 19-year-old Oceanside native, with the goal of keeping the program rooted in the town even if Santos eventually steps back.
For now, the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday schedule remains fixed, with class updates posted to the "Oceanside Oregon Zumba" Facebook page.
"If you want a polished studio with mirrors and a juice bar, this is not that," Reeves said. "But if you want to dance hard in a room where the person next to you might be a grandma or a deckhand or a tourist from Boise, there's nothing else like it on the coast."
