Making history as a Black Surfer in Luanda Bay

 Located on the central coast of California, Luanda Bay was named after a quiet African beach Town in Angola. The area discovered by Portuguese explorer Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542. The year was 2017 when I was invited by a fellow surfer who organizes surfing meet ups. He said it was going to be a peace paddle out type surf session at Luanda Bay on Martin Luther King's Birthday.

This location known in the past for the acts of racism, vandalism and localism where many articles have been written and a documentary was made about it. I agreed to go under the impression it would be a group of us paddling out together, so as a Black female Surfer, it was a historical moment in time.

That's me with the grey wetsuit with Maki, who is a Japanese female surfer with the mission of diverse representation and inclusion. We knew each other from surfing at the same spot and have hung out together with her family at other surf locations. We were happy to see each other being told the same thing and was very nervous when no one showed up but us.

As you see behind me in the LA Times news article, we had to climb down the mountain which sits at a 550 feet elevation and takes about 0.2 miles to get to the Ocean, 1.5 miles round trip. It was such a relief to see the main organizer Christopher Taloa who was there to greet everyone who showed up, volunteered to take our Surfboards down for us. We had no idea how to get down or even what technique we needed carrying our boards down.

It was the most scary steep path I had ever taken and to this day have not ever tried one like that again. Whew! If you ever think about hiking this trail, make sure to stretch thoroughly, where proper shoes or boots with traction to avoid slipping or falling, be hydrated and use the buddy system by going with another person. I would say it's an intermediate hike, if you go down the way we did. There's also a warning signs out there to so to keep visitors safe.

 

Believe me when I tell you, we both wanted to turn around but what you didn't see in the photo above were about 25 News Media Trucks in front of us, with all of their Cameras filming. It was like walking down the red carpet at an award show, in addition to the 30 Police cars that were on stand by incase something happened. It was really too much.

Prior to seeing any of them, because a portion of the block, I had already put on my wetsuit down the block in my car. Carrying my soft-top surfboard in my hand, they all looked at me when I strolled by. They were all staring in anticipation.

It was kind of embarrassing because I wasn't even expecting it, just was thinking about a surfing adventure. Had I known that steep, rocky path was the only way get down to the bay, I would have changed my mind. Everything was going so fast though. It was hard to think.

When we finally got down to the bottom, we had to walk on more rocks to get to the water that was filled also with rocks underneath. That's when I met Brian who had came down behind us, was so awesome in instructing me how to turn my board over so we wouldn't damage our fins, also using our boards to minimize the impact of walking on the sharper rocks until we pass the shallow part and was able to get on our boards. I had not known that before.

Once we did, the cove was a bed full of large kelp trees. If you've ever had to paddle through one, you'd know how difficult it is to do with your leash getting caught in it and having to work twice as hard paddling. Finally getting to the end of the cove where the waves were breaking to about 7ft peelers, I knew I was not going any further.

Great for someone who loves overhead barrels right? but not us! Me and Maki, the other female surfer, stayed where the water was more calm but I caught one in the white wash ( a wave is a wave) right? It was actually very interesting seeing that type of wave barreling up close like that where the water was more glassy looking.

The tubes were super clean and hollow. Although very intimidating to be out there with that type of massive energy progressively picking up, it was also terrifying to think about climbing back up that mountain, so we stayed. There wasn't really anywhere you could sit on land because of the sharp rocks everywhere.

By the time we did decide to head back up, there were surfers showing up to be apart of the peaceful paddle out but most of the media was gone and I was grateful a group of tourist hiking helped me with my surfboard.

To conclude, that was a totally unnecessary, crazy experience. I had vertigo type nightmares for an entire month after that, waking up feeling like I was falling down the mountain. I learned from that experience to pick and choose my battles wisely and one that was a mistake for me, but we can actually claim our place in history. I'm the first Black Woman to surf in Luanda Bay, California but never again, Nope!! Would you have went?