A bunch of CSC crew and I attended the Memorial Paddle Out for George Floyd in Rockaway on June 6, 2020. It was organized by @black_surfing_rockaway, which is the east coast branch of the Black Surfing Association (BSA) and also by Black Girls Surf. George Floyd’s death has sparked this incredible time of cultural awakening. The surf community came together for paddle outs all over the country and the world on June 5 and June 6. This is the kind of solidarity and future-oriented thinking that the surf community has so desperately needed. The whole event was deeply moving — 1000s of surfers united as a tribe to call for justice or rather a complete overhaul of the legal (in)justice system in America. We are all normally so hell bent on finding our own peak or our own waves that communing with our fellow surfers is difficult. Add to that less trained people dropping in on you and getting in your way on the inside and you have a nasty brew of animosity and surf rage. This event was not about curing surf rage, but I had the feeling that in a way it could be a positive side effect of more events like these. The paddle out showed that we can join in harmony and recognition of our shared humanity.
But first and foremost it was about honoring the death of George Floyd and countless other black people in America who have been unjustly killed by the police. I think it may have been the first memorial paddle out (along with the others around the world and nation) for a non surfer. Normally when a surfer dies the surfing community paddles out to sea with flowers and his or her ashes and that’s how the ceremony is held. The surfer’s ashes are distributed back into the sea, a few of the community leaders say some words, and then the surfers celebrate by splashing the water and hooting. I myself would love for my life to be celebrated in this fashion after I am gone. When we return to the sea in this way we are truly going back to where we emerged from in the first place. The sea water in the veins of surfer and non surfer alike connects us all.
It will be interesting to see how this movement and uprising plays out in the world at large. Already cities and counties are discussing and making moves to abolish or radically transform their police forces. Many of the things that police respond to do not require guns or badges — and in many places in the world the everyday police do not carry fire arms. The police in America are trained for combat and they look that way. Their whole presence is defensive and menacing. There were two police boats surveilling the paddle out — you’ll see them in the video — and they felt unnecessary. It was later revealed on Instagram that the boats were there at the behest of Black Surfing Rockaway should there be a medical emergency in the water. But this is precisely the point: even though the intention was good, the execution sent the wrong message simply due to the symbolism and ‘vibe’ of the police boats. It’s also a cynical view of humanity and surfers that we would not be able to rescue a brother or sister who had a stroke in the water — I know I am capable of putting someone on my board and paddling them to shore. In ideal world there would be medics — trained EMTs — waiting peacefully on the beach should such an emergency occur at an event like this.
Pic from the water of the circle of surfers in support of BLM — police boat is off in the distance.
It would also have been a different thing altogether if the police had big ‘Black Lives Matter’ banners on the sides of their boats in solidarity. This would have sent a completely different message, and we would not have felt like they were there to quell some kind of uprising in the water.
Surfers have an unspoken code not to get the police involved in any of our water disputes. There have been a few cases where they were in involved — they were called in to respond to the crazy localism at Lunada Bay — and when I lived in SF a body boarder had a restraining order from surfing Fort Point (under the Golden Gate Bridge) for putting someone in a choke hold in the lineup — but for the most part we rely on ourselves to sort out our issues in the water. I do not think we do the best job most of the time — there is a lot of defensive and entitled behavior — and part of my program here at CSC is to endeavor to do better. One thing I have noticed is that one is less likely to commit a surfing ‘crime’ against another surfer if he or she knows their name. This is not always the case — there are bad actors that burn all and sundry — but for the most part it is easier to work out the dispute if you are able to acknowledge the person’s humanity by ‘saying their name’.
I also wanted to write this post to formally acknowledge that CSC supports the BLM movement and everything it stands for. This movement has caused me to honestly and holistically confront my own complicity — as I did in the post below as well — and has helped me see that it is ok to admit that you have played a part in a thoroughly sick system. My goal moving forward is to continue to having these difficult thoughts and conversations and to devise ways that I can contribute to a better (surfing) culture. In the video you may or may not notice that I do not chant along too often — it remains hard for me to shout with a crowd in public — and this is for any cause, even ones I truly believe in, like this one. I don’t have the requisite passion because empathy is a logical, not an emotional, process for me. Given the logic of trying to put yourself in the shoes of others — and this is what so many white people in America need to be doing right now — one can find the reason why one should also raise one’s voice in unison against the cultural institutions that radically underserve black Americans. There is another paddle out on June 20th and I’ll endeavor to join in the chanting then.