ABOUT
Who We Are
Here at Black Surf Club Santa Cruz, we are driven by a single goal; to promote physical and spiritual wellness through surf and community here in Santa Cruz County. We are driven by the need and urgency for inclusivity, diversity, and equality.
Black Surf Club Santa Cruz aims to tear down barriers that oftentimes keep our oceans segregated. By taking a strategic focus on both physical and spiritual wellness, Black Surf Club Santa Cruz aims to create a community of healing for our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Community here in Santa Cruz. Black Surf Club empowers our Black community to reclaim their space in the ocean through surfing, spiritual wellness, water safety, and community. Join us as we work to make Santa Cruz County a more inclusive place for all.
Black Surf Club Santa Cruz was founded by Esabella Bonner.
Black Surf Club Santa Cruz aims to eliminate access barriers within the sport of surf and create an inclusive community. Our goal is to promote physical and spiritual wellness through surf for our local BIPOC Community.
Black Surf Club SC needs your help to ensure that we are able to get our students into the water at no cost to them. There are a multitude of systemic factors that have played a role in the lack of diversity that we continue to witness within the sport today. Some of these factors include segregation, redlining, access barriers (no equipment), and blatant racism and ignorance experienced in the water. Black Surf Club aims to change that.
EQUIPMENT DONATIONS
Help eliminate access barriers to surfing in Santa Cruz!
George Floyd Memorial Paddle Out
#BlackLivesMatter
While the calls for diversity and inclusion within the surf community came long before the murder of George Floyd, it was the paddle outs in solidarity against racism and police brutality that brought this issue to our founders’ attention.
How can one participate in a paddle out for Black Lives without actively ensuring that Black people are able to participate in the event? There are many barriers to entry when it comes to surfing.
The George Floyd Memorial Paddle Out organized on June 7th, 2020 was our first community call to action to ensure that our BIPOC community was able to engage with the surf community in ways that we have never experienced before.
With help from the community, most specifically Cowells Surf Shop, we were able to ensure that over 20 Black community members were able to join in and mourn the murder of George Floyd as a community.
