A few months ago we featured Imani Wilmot,the Jamaican Daughter of Surfing. Vote for Imani in the BLACKGIRLSROCK M.A.D. (Making A Difference) Girl, honoring women changing their communities. Winner will be awarded at the BLACK GIRLS ROCK Annual Award show featured on BET. Let's support this fellow BLACK SURFER CHICK!
It seems like the surfers are coming out in droves (*haha*).Don't worry skateboarders, sit tight, there will be more skater chicks coming to you soon! Here is a story about Andrea Kabwasa, a BLACK SURFER CHICK whose surfing journey became a remedy for overcoming abuse.
Source:Liquid Magazine,2011
I noticed Andrea Kabwasa while watching the documentary Whitewash. Andrea, a teacher and artist, started surfing at the age of 32. In an interview with Liquid Magazine , Andrea expresses how surfing changed her life. She recollects her first time on a surfboard saying, "...I do, however, remember how I felt afterwards—happy. I had forgotten what that felt like, to be truly happy without a care in the world (even if it was only for an hour). Needless to say, I was hooked." Her addiction to surfing has also been therapeutic in overcoming the effects of an abusive relationship, she said "...surfing is happiness, love and self-empowerment. The act of interacting with water cleansed my inner spirit. Before surfing, the lens from which I viewed life was pretty dirty. I was filled with low self-worth and, at times, I made some pretty self-destructive choices. Surfing redirected that energy in a positive direction. When I surf, I feel beautiful. I’m a starting to feel beautiful on dry land too now." The impact that surfing had in tranforming her life is remarkable.Surfing has also influenced Andrea's art. Art, being her chosen form of expression since her young adult years, Andrea's art has shifted from a sad emotional sentiment to "mind surfing on canvas." She now paints her surf dreams and views of paradise. Andrea admires the surfing styles of Derek Hynd, Tyler Warren, Jimmy Gamboa, Julie Cox, Joel Tudor and Kevin Connelly. Her favorite surf spot is Scorpion Bay, Surfrider Beach and Saladitas in California.
I love what Andrea's outlook on happiness: "happiness is those rare moments when you are so completely locked in, that you feel like you are dancing in harmony with life itself. Each wave has a different rhythm and a different dance. I like wave-dancing. It makes me happy."
I would like to send out a special Thank You to @Bertstyle and our friends at Brown Girls Surf for sharing information on the documentary Whitewash. A few weeks ago I posted an article about "12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story." Whitewash is another documentary expanding on the black experience in surfing.
Source:Whitewash,2011
Whitewash explores the African-American experience and race in surfing. It touches on some pertinent issues about how the history of surfing was detached from it’s indigenous Hawaiian origins and largely regarded as having it’s founding or “discovery” with European settlers. It also focuses on the issues of segregation and racism at beaches in California and of how the belief that “black people can’t swim” was passed down from generation to generation.
One section of the documentary that really stuck out was the story of an English sea captain’s account of seeing young Ghanian boys “riding waves on wooden boards” on the Gold Coast of Ghana in the 17th century. Ironically, this was the same coast where the slave trade later occurred. As the slave trade expanded, many Africans in costal regions moved inland, which could suggest why “aquatic culture” greatly diminished. In the 1960’s, two American surfers would later be documented “introducing” surfing to Ghanaians in the film “The Endless Summer.” Well “reintroducing.”
Whitewash is definitely an eye opener for individuals in the black community, who believe that sports like surfing is a “white thing.” Although one’s interest in a sport should not be associated with race it is still a factor. Though as surfer Andrea Kabwasa noted “When you’re riding a wave there is no race.”
Whitewash is now available to watch for free Hulu,check it out below!
I encourage you to watch this documentary and please share your thoughts. One point that this documentary projected was the fact that so much of our history has been written from one perspective. We should be recording our own stories,history and culture so it is not distorted. The documentary also featured the founder of Brooklyn Surfer, a company and surfing community in Brooklyn, New York. Guess what my fellow New Yorkers? You don't need to go on the West Coast to surf.
