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LA's Black Surfers Protest From Their Boards

Photo by Matthew Reamer
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Black Girls Surf, a group that promotes surfing among girls and women of color, organized their own protest from the water last week.

A paddle-out is an ancient Hawaiin ritual where surfers form a circle with their boards in the water, maybe offer a prayer or token as a way of honoring the memory of someone who has passed.

On June 6, the paddlers offered yellow roses to honor Floyd.

The local surfing community is majority white, said Sayuri Blondt, the head of the L.A. and SoCal chapter of Black Girls Surf. So it felt significant for Black women to organize an event within a community that hasn't always included them.

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