Ocean size.
The bitter winter cold makes me think of my two-year lost weekend in Southern California, and thoughts of SoCal plus watching The Scamp toss his lithe body around into yoga poses makes me think of surfing. Which I never attempted, to my regret; I opted to live vicariously through my then-boyfriend, a dedicated surfer practically since he could walk. It was a boys’ club and an exhilaratingly fun one, though I longed to meet other women who weren’t part of the beached girlfriends brigade.
That’s why Andrea Kabwasa is an inspiration. The California-born, Europe- and Africa-raised Kabwasa is a diplomat’s daughter and special-education teacher who first stood up on a surfboard at the age of 32. She’s been a dedicated surfer since (her 40th birthday is next August), and the first black woman to surf longboard competitively; she’s even building her own surfboard now. She teaches free surf clinics with the Black Surfing Assocation – “I’ve taught a lot of moms, which is so cool,” she says – and she’s an ambassador to the easily intimidated (like me), noting that she hadn’t been swimming for 10 years when she started (“You don’t need to be an excellent swimmer,” she says encouragingly).
My complete chat with Andrea is after the jump.
How did you start surfing?
It was kind of a 30s crisis, a woman’s midlife crisis. I came back home to heal my wounds from a broken relationship and was moping and then I realized I didn’t need to mope — I started thinking about what I wanted to do. The first thing that came to my mind was surfing. I took a lesson – it was fantastic. I wasn’t tied to other people, material things – it was so pure. I was tied to just nature, and I wanted more of that.
Why longboard?
It’s easier to start. Longboard is user-friendly to begin with. I’ve always been attracted to longboarding because it’s very graceful.
Did the scene intimidate you in any way, at least starting out?
Initially, yeah. But I used to play college basketball, and it’s really no different than going to an unfamiliar park to play pick-up. Guys don’t know you, you’re the only girl – you just gotta suck it up and do it. Once you get out there, everybody’s trying to do what you’re doing, so that stuff fades away. I have run across aggro stuff, it tends to be the younger guys – but you can watch National Geographic and see the same [dynamic] in other animals. [laughing] For the most part, it’s been pretty cool.
What tends to surprise people more – that you’re a woman or that you’re black?
I don’t know – it could be a bit of both. On bigger [wave] days, it’s the fact that I’m a woman – you tend to see fewer women out when it’s huge. When I started I noticed that there weren’t many people of color, you’re kind of like a black spot. I got a lot of stares, more surprised looks — I still get those. There’s a handful of us out there – but it’s growing.
Are you surfing professionally?
I’ve had some jobs, but I’m not pro. I surf competitively through the Longboard Coalition, but I’m in flux with that. What surfing brought to me was not the competitive drive, it was the soul aspect, and I’m leaning toward the soul-searching aspect. But my mentors taught me to see that there’s a voice I’m providing just by being out in the water, so for those reasons, I go to events so that people can see that it’s everybody’s ocean. You think about a surfer and you think blond hair and blue eyes, but surfing has been innate not just to Hawaii but also to Africa…Ghana has an entrenched tradition of surfing. We’re part of this too.
Who are your sponsors?
Malibu Surfing Association – they’ve been a very supportive club. Reef has sponsored us. [The value in it is] just to put your name out there within the surf industry – there’s nothing black about [the industry] or anything other than the stereotype, so the more African Americans who are sponsored, the more the surfing industry changes.
Do you have surfing mentors?
Primarily Rick Blocker — he’s the best longboarder I’ve ever seen — and historically Nick Avedon. On the female side, Sharon Schaffer – she’s the first ever. In the early ‘80s, she was the only black woman to surf competitively. She’s so important to women and sports and professional surfing. That’s who I admire and respect a lot. She’s a shortboarder as well. In a quiet way, she’s made history.
There seems to be increasing interest in promoting board sports (skating, surfing, snowboarding) amongst “urban” youth, definitely in a way that wasn’t the case when I was growing up in the ‘burbs. What’s your perspective on this turn of the tide?
Playing with nature, playing with gravity is just fun. Most of those sports are really ultimately about that. I don’t know what the shift is, but I think skateboarding is the perfect outlet for kids where there are no parks. With a skateboard your wave is the sidewalks and streets. And sometimes families feed it because you see your kids want to go outside and play instead of staying inside playing video games.
You say, “Surfing has literally transformed my outlook on life” on the Black Surfing site. How?
Just realizing that you can be happy without it being connected to anything or anybody. Your relationship with the ocean – there’s something about the water that is very empowering, humbling. There’s an awakening that comes. It opens up your spirituality even if you don’t have any – I didn’t [laughing]. You’re spending hours and hours with Mother Nature, a moving Mother Nature. You realize the ocean is alive. My awareness of the environment, my diet has shifted. It’s like meditation – it’s a cleansing that no other sport can give you, spending two hours completely focused on nature.
As soon as you get on a wave and actually ride the ocean, that’s when you transform. It’s truly instant. You learn to trust your instincts like never before – you learn to listen to yourself a lot more. You might have a wipeout, or something might go wrong, but you make it. And that process of making it through something you thought could go wrong, it transfers to life – it’ll work out. I think that’s where the “laidback surfer” stereotype comes from.
Basically, every day I’m thankful I was allowed to be introduced to the ocean. I went on this trip to Scorpion Bay and rode this amazing wave – I tell people I think I got the Holy Ghost. [laughing] I’m so non-religious, but it changed my life. On the way back from Baja, we stopped by this fishing village and I saw all these beautiful seashells on the beach, and I picked up one, a mother-of-pearl shell, and when I got back home, a friend got me a ring with waves and mother-of-pearl inlays. Every morning I twist my ring and say thank you. Thank you for the ocean. I’m in a much better place than 6 years ago. My attitude is the key, and I think that’s tied to the constant exposure to the ocean, to the water, overcoming fears, the triumph of catching a wave I didn’t think I could catch.
Want to surf? “Getting a lesson is so important,” says Andrea. “I learned from Rusty Farrell in San Diego. You go out with him and you just feel safe. I think a big step is getting the right instructor.”
You can see Andrea in action and talking more about surfing at One Last Wave.