“They’re all fresh surfers, and most of them know how to swim,” said Junior Monzon, the youth and family program director at YMCA Ketchum-Downtown. Today, Santa Monica and adjacent beaches are filled with diverse people from across the world, many of whom are experiencing the beach for the first time.Īnd thanks to the Surf Bus Foundation, disadvantaged kids from the YMCA Ketchum-Downtown got to feel the sand and dip into the ocean for the first time. “Knowing that somebody was surfing in the ’50s, it kind of gives us permission to be like, ‘Oh, this is something for us to do.’”Īlthough Gabaldón’s life was short, his time riding the waves would lay the foundation for future surfers. ![]() For a long time, it felt like we didn’t have permission to partake in it,” said Lizelle Jackson with Color the Water. “I think surfing is not a sport where we tend to see a lot of people of color. His body was recovered three days later along with a poem titled “Lost Lives,” in which Gabaldón foreshadowed his untimely death. In 1951, Gabaldón’s courageous adventures ended when he was caught in an 8-foot wave, losing control of his board and crashing into the Malibu Pier. With little money and no car, Gabaldón would readily paddle 12 miles north to Malibu to surf California’s best waves. Gabaldón was a talented surfer whose love for the ocean was unwavering. With the help of such organizations as Heal the Bay, Surf Bus and Color the Water, the Black Surfers Collective hosts the annual Nick Gabaldón Day at Santa Monica Beach to promote inclusivity and diversity within the surf community. Ten years ago, amid social unrest, the Black Surfers Collective decided to pick a day to commemorate a person who could help bring communities together. “It will knock you down the same way it will knock me down.” “The ocean doesn’t care what color you are,” said Jeff Williams, a co-founder of Black Surfers Collective. More than 70 years after his death in a surfing accident, the Black and Latino pioneer was honored at Santa Monica Beach, as surfers of all ages gathered last month to showcase their appreciation for the waves and Gabaldón’s efforts to expand the surf community. ![]() It was here that Nick Gabaldón taught himself to surf. ![]() LOS ANGELES – During the Jim Crow era, a two-block area in Santa Monica known as the “Inkwell” was the only beach where Black and other minority beachgoers were readily accepted. In 2007, Los Angeles recognized the “Inkwell” beach and Nick Gabaldón for being the first documented Black surfer in Southern California.
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