As Black surfers return for competition and community in Huntington Beach, an LAist editor finds her wave

I consider myself an unlikely surfer.

A few years ago, I — a middle-aged Black woman in search of mini-adventures — put on a wetsuit, rented a big foam surfboard and took some lessons.

What surprised me was how freeing it felt. Not because I was any good, but because I didn’t feel a need to be. It was enough just to be outside, in the ocean, trying something new.

Something a little unexpected.

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I’ve had several surf sessions since that first one, but last week was different. I had a lesson with Nathan Fluellen, founder of A Great Day in the Stoke, a free event in Orange County billed as “the largest gathering of Black surfers in history.”

The fourth annual festival is set for Saturday in Huntington Beach.

“Every year it’s growing, and it’s exciting to see it grow at a rapid pace,” Fluellen said.

The all-day event has many objectives, according to its founder: showcasing Black surfers, providing lessons and promoting water safety.

Organizers say the event is about creating a space where representation is the norm, not the exception.

“My surf dreams were deferred,” said Fluellen, who is Black, in an interview after my surf lesson. “I didn’t see anybody that looked like me.”

He imagined more than a few children and teens have floated the idea of surfing to parents and friends, only to be told it’s not something Black people do.

“Because they never saw it,” he said. “So if you don’t see it, you can’t believe it.”

Origins of the festival

Fluellen, a travel influencer and TV host who lives in Los Angeles, was in his mid-30s when he took up the sport. He’s now 44.

As a child growing up in Chicago, Fluellen had seen surfing in movies — the original Point Break is a favorite — and they sparked an interest, he said. But that gave way to basketball — he was growing up in the Bulls’ home city in the era of Michael Jordan after all.

The spark reignited when he got the opportunity to meet Zulu surfers in Durban, South Africa.

“It was just pure joy,” he recalled. And he couldn’t wait to go back.

Now, the event he founded draws hundreds to the water.

Nathan Fluellen, founder of A Great Day in the Stoke, an annual festival in Huntington Beach that celebrates Black surf culture

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Dana Littlefield

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LAist

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The idea for A Great Day in the Stoke was prompted, in part, by paddle outs Fluellen and other surfers held starting in 2020 to honor the lives of slain Black men and women, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

“It was cool at first,” he said of the paddle outs, noting they were among the few opportunities he had during the COVID-19 lockdowns to see people in person. “But then, I just got exhausted of paddle outs because it was a reaction to tragedy. And then, I was just like, ‘Man, we need something to celebrate our existence.’”

The festival’s name was inspired by a famous photo titled “A Great Day in Harlem,” taken in 1958 by photographer Art Kane. The photo featured 57 jazz musicians posing in front of a brownstone. Four decades later, in 1998, photographer Gordon Parks captured a similar image — this time with nearly 200 rap artists and producers — titled “A Great Day in Hip Hop.”

Fluellen swapped in the word “stoke” because it’s rooted in surf culture.

Representation matters

Fluellen said A Great Day in the Stoke is part of a larger movement to amplify access, equity and inclusion in surfing and promote health and wellness.

He chose Huntington Beach because it’s known as Surf City USA, home to both the International Surfing Museum and the US Open of Surfing.

He said the city has welcomed the event, which attracted hundreds of attendees its first year.

Devon James, a 24-year-old surfer and content creator from Pasadena, was at the event four years ago. He’s been surfing since he was 9.

“The first one was rad just because it was so new and everyone was, like, to the nines, going 100 percent,” he said. “Just the community as a whole really showed out.”

Attendees at a previous A Great Day in the Stoke event in Huntington Beach.

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Courtesy A Great Day in the Stoke

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James said A Great Day in the Stoke is about providing a space for freedom of expression in the water.

“We have people coming in from all over the country,” he said. “It’s truly just a celebration of surf culture and just an opportunity for inclusivity. And I think that’s what I love about it.”

My surf session

To avoid the crowd gathering for a special event in Huntington, my lesson took place just down the coast in Newport Beach.

The weather was as close to perfect as I could hope for. The air was hot, and the water was cold, but not too cold.

Fluellen started with instructions on how to lie on the big, foam surfboard, paddle with my arms and pop up to my feet. He asked if my stance was “regular,” with my left foot forward and my right foot back, or “goofy,” the opposite.

“Regular,” I said, sounding a little too confident.

Fluellen carried on with the lesson: “Your head controls where you’re going. So if you look straight, you’ll go straight. If you look to the left, you’ll go to the left. Look to the right, you’ll go right. Look down, you’re going down.”

I laughed nervously.

No need to worry about paddling, he said, because he’d wait for a wave and push me into it. All I had to do was stand up.

Easier said than done, I thought.

What followed was me trying and failing again and again to catch small waves as they rolled to the shore. In the end, I had sea water in my mouth and sand in my ears, but I managed to stand — briefly — at least once.

And that felt like success.

“You’ve got good mechanics,” Fluellen told me later. “You’ve got to just keep practicing, keep coming out. … You know, practice makes perfect.”

Luckily for me, perfection’s not required.

LAist Associate Producer Brandon Killman contributed to this report.