We want more BAME women in surfing (LEARN MORE)

Yvette Curtis wants to start surfing sessions for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women at her north Devon surf school. It comes amid discussions about the lack of diversity in UK surfing and how it can be addressed.

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Textured Waves: A Conversation About Diversity in Surfing

A group of African American women surfers taking their rightful place in the lineup (LEARN MORE)

Textured Waves, a collective of female surfers of color doing their damnedest to empower non-white surfers (specifically women) to feel comfortable in the lineup.

By embracing the color of their skin and the shape of their bodies, these women are challenging the surf industry’s conception of what the ideal “surfer chick” should look like.

 

Gigi Lucas is Working to Make Surfing More Accessible to Black Girls (LEARN MORE)

"So, when our girls go through the surf camps, we want them to take the feeling of them paddling in and catching their first wave with them throughout the rest of their lives, wherever they go.”

-Gigi Lucas

 

 

Black Girls Surf! (LEARN MORE)

“We decided that we were going to start organizing into real groups and really start working towards a future for women...but specifically, afro surfers because those were the most underrepresented of all of the groups” - Rhonda Harper, BGS.

 

 

Coloring The Waters (LEARN MORE)

"That is where I was trying to make sure that it wasn’t performative," Malana said, when asked about what it means to be a true ally. "And also because media was involved, I didn’t want it to be where I give one lesson, get the pictures and post it online. I wanted to develop autonomous surfers.”

 

 

Meet Textured Waves, the Surf Collective Inviting More Women of Color Into the Water (LEARN MORE)

“What we hope to bring to [surf culture] is what jazz brought to the music industry,” says Duran. “No rules, no preconceived notions.” She, Black Lyons, Lucas, and Woody are all surfing devotees with an unyielding dedication to health, strength, community, and kindness.

 

“We all had a shared experience—when you search for Black surfers, there was one image that popped up,” Black Lyons explains. “It was a White savior pushing an African American child into the wave, and that wasn’t our experience surfing. We wanted to shift that narrative.”

 

The sea provides a countering force of freedom and catharsis, balance and beauty.

 

Whoever Said Surfing Is for White People Never Met These Women (LEARN MORE)

Manickam-Shirley. “While there may be financial or logistical barriers, one of the most powerful is the ‘imaginative barrier.’ Can you imagine yourself doing this? For many in our community, surfing is not something they could imagine themselves doing until something shifted. And a lot of time that shift has to do with representation. … We are everywhere. … As our community grows, we don’t have to rely on gatekeepers to let us in.”

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How Jamaican women are reclaiming the waves (LEARN MORE)

Surf Girls Jamaica follows the small collective of surfers that Imani has created as they gear up to host Jamaica’s first ever all-women surfing contest. For the group, it’s a case of creating their own space within a society that is, as the subjects of the documentary term it, oppressive to women.

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