It’s more focused on body parts and not skill. “When it comes to women’s representation, it’s overly sexualized. It’s gonna take a while of sustained action in order to change the landscape of surfing. However, the action isn’t quite tethered to the acceptance yet. I do think that emotionally and intellectually people are evolving. It doesn’t exist at a high performance level here in the states and that won’t change overnight. If it’s not passed down to you, if your parents didn’t have access, it’s gonna take generations to fix. When you’re not exposed to surfing when you’re young, your chances of being on that world stage are so slim. Recently people are starting to acknowledge or finally recognize that there’s been this huge gap in diversity for so long. Have you noticed any progress since you started surfing? Are people becoming more accepting?Ĭhelsea: It’s a mixed bag, for sure. That’s an anomaly.’ And so there’s this heavy weight on our shoulders all the time. People are like, ‘oh she’s a black woman surfer. But we carry this badge wherever we show up. It’s because we actually love surfing, and it is a battle sometimes going out to just enjoy the session.
It wasn’t for the approval of other people. Gigi: It’s a constant reminder of why we fell in love with the sport. It doesn’t matter how often I frequent that spot I still have to show that I belong there. I have to prove myself on every single wave I take, every session. Other times people question your ability, which can be frustrating. I think some of it boils down to curiosity. When you’re a woman of color, you get even more questioning looks from people. But how does being a woman of color add to that difficulty?ĭanielle Black Lyons: People already look at you a certain way when you paddle out into a lineup as a woman. Gigi Lucas: If you Google image search ‘surfers,’ it doesn’t show people like us, As people who have been surfing for years, and for us not to be considered surfers in the mainstream – that’s an issue.īeing a woman surfer is already tough, given that the sport is so heavily male dominated. So we wanted to change that we wanted to tell our story. But they’re spread out around the world, and not really centrally organized. If you Google or search hashtags for black surfers, there’s some folks out there. It was social media and a shared bond over a lack of representation of folks who look like us and the absence of a place for us. Surfline: How did this whole thing start?Ĭhelsea Woody: Good ol’ social media. (Yep, it’s a big deal.) Keep scrollin’ to read the chat.Ĭhelsea Woody, one of the four cofounders of Textured Waves, with her foot on the gas. So, we had a discussion with the women of Textured Waves - Chelsea Woody, Danielle Black Lyons, Gigi Lucas, and Martina Duran - on a host of subjects ranging from the hurdles they’ve had to overcome in surfing, the message they hope to impart upon young girls, and the struggles African American women surfers face when it comes to hair. And they’re gaining traction, too, with a strong social media following, a blog discussing the adversity women of color face in the water, and surf meetups nationwide.
SURFING A COLORFUL WAVE SKIN
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.
(Forgive the pun.) And while things have progressed massively since, say, the 1960s – with Brazil as the dominant surfing superpower, over 50 countries represented in the ISA’s most recent World Surfing Games, equal pay for the women’s WSL, and Mikey February as the first black surfer to don a CT jersey – there’s still a ways to go.Įnter the women of Textured Waves, a collective of female surfers of color doing their damnedest to empower all surfers (specifically women) to feel comfortable in the lineup.
When it comes to race, the modern history of surfing is relatively whitewashed.
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