Color the Water

Play Equity to Advance Mental Health (sponsored by the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Surfing has, for many generations, flown under the radar of deep examination of the white supremacist, heteronormative, ableist, patriarchal legacies it perpetuates. What was once a communal practice invented by People of Color all over the world is now considered a sport and culture predominantly composed of white men. Whether it's settler colonialism that pushed Indigenous People of Color away from coastlines or forced POC into a relationship of labor and trauma with the ocean; a systemic exclusion from water and swimming through the Jim Crow era, or an establishment of cultural norms ("Black people don't swim") and embedded exclusionary practices like redlining; surfing embodies marginalization that harms us all, with greatest impact on BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled people. This is greatly reflected in the existing adaptive surf community where BIPOC participation is limited to a handful of individuals in a growing field of recreation and competitive sports for disabled people.

This grant will support the development of three phases of work: knowledge-sharing + capacity building, reflection, and offering support, to create a more inclusive surf space that actively supports disabled BIPOC people. Knowledge-sharing, Capacity-building: From the start of Color the Water to now, we have been able to support and learn from one physically disabled surfer - Ty Duckett, the first Black American adaptive surfer. It starts with our own education. Capacity to support physically disabled people in the water requires training, both in specialized water safety and in disability justice and accessibility. Examination, Reflection, Revision: With this increased knowledge and capacity, we will prepare to offer space to Disabled BIPOC while at the same time applying our learnings to our existing space. We will elevate all our accessibility practices to become a new standard to ensure that the most marginalized among us, especially the disabled, are fully supported. Qualified, Justice Centered Offerings: With all these tools, we will extend this offering to the Disabled BIPOC community. This will include reimagined surf lessons with accessibility at its core. From site conditions to specialized wave riding and surf gear, inclusive media for people of all abilities, and on-going educational opportunities foster attunement to the intersection of racial and disability justice, we want to be more intersectional, anti-ableist, and truly inclusive of all abilities.

Success in this program means a continuation of the journey to liberation with more of us in mind. The chance for our community to develop a model for surf instruction training that involves our anti-racist philosophies and disability justice principles that could be used well after this project by us and others is a distinct pillar of success for us. Then, as we seed and grow the practice of making surfing a safer place for disabled people of color to heal and play, the implications of that move far beyond the project window. Ty has been our guiding light in this all, constantly showing us that there are deeper levels of belonging that we can create for our people. Our vision is that this becomes a lasting and integral aspect of our community as a whole. A space where we can receive all those who suffer from the harm of systemic racism and have the intention and the capacity to support them as they are. Similar to our growth over the years, we seek deep rooted, lasting impact.

This project expands what we have done in the BIPOC community to now include Disabled BIPOC. The measures of success are deep and multifaceted. Impact on CTW: principles of water safety and surf instruction all bound together by disability justice principles positively transform our entire organization - Increased depth of knowledge and capacity of CTW community. - CTW transformation through trainings and implementation with greater understanding of accessibility - CTW surfers indirectly impacted through education, programming changes, and media Impact on Disabled BIPOC: A place of equitable ocean access for disabled BIPOC has great impact - Increase in Disabled POC with open ended access to to surf support - Creation of disabled surf programming based on disability justice principles. Impact on Surfing & World: Representation with power for disabled BIPOC surfers - diverse representation of disabled surfers of color - Increased spread of awareness of disability justice