Head to any popular Southern California surf break and you’ll instantly know that the sport of surfing is surging by the number of bodies bobbing on surfboards, waiting for waves. “But everyone knows they can now.” A changing surf industry Not all the Black beach partygoers want to learn to surf, Howze said. “This is what was needed, this is what was missing,” said Howze. “All these people are getting over their fear of the ocean and being able to do it together.” The August gathering drew 2,000 and by September, 5,000 mostly people of color showed up, he said.
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The first Beach Bounce, which offered free surf lessons, drew 150 people last April, then doubled that number at the next gathering. Howze started hosting beach gatherings under the name Ebony Beach Club, a nod to a Black beach club in 1957 that never got off the ground because of government interference. News articles were written about the altercation, putting a spotlight on not just the incident, but the lack of Black community in the surfing world. Howze has a social media following and recounted the incident online with his friend who was also in the water. “There’s no protection in this space, there’s no community in this space, at least for someone who looks like me.” That was the thing that showed me nobody cared,” Howze said. But more concerning and perplexing was why no one in the water came to his defense. It wasn’t the man’s verbal attack that was bothersome, it’s something Howze said he has learned to shrug off over the years. That’s when another older surfer in the water butted into the exchange, calling Howze a derogatory, racially-charged word, shouting it out over and over again. Just as he was getting the hang of it and learning the rules of the waves, he “dropped in” on another surfer, the faux pas of paddling into a wave someone already is riding, irking the more experienced wave rider. Howze calls himself an “unapologetic pandemic surfer,” who like many others, picked up the sport in pursuit of an outdoor pastime. “They are just out there having a blast.” Turning negative to positive “They don’t realize they are part of a social justice movement,” he said of the beach partygoers who show up to the gatherings, with another planned for Sunday, June 18. The majority of surfers in the United States are white males, but a recently released study that tracks the sport’s participation highlights a cultural shift in the sea, with statistics showing more Black and Hispanic surfers taking up wave riding in recent years.įor Howze, who for the past year has hosted “Beach Bounce” gatherings for the Black community at Dockweiler Beach, there’s a needed change in a public place meant to be for all to enjoy. “Just seeing Black people at the beach, surfing on waves, encourages others to enjoy the ocean,” Howze said.
Justin “Brick” Howze has a saying: “You can’t be it, if you can’t see it.”
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