Sal Masekela,47
Sports commentator, television journalist and musician, Los Angeles, CA
The act of surfing is about as musical as physical expression can be in sports. It’s rhythmic, and if you don’t have rhythm with the ocean, you won’t be able to surf—you have to have metronome in some way. I grew up playing music and when I first moved to the West Coast I traded in music for surfing. Surfing became my music.
Surfing is something that’s multigenerational. Grandma, grandpa, parents and kids can all go on a surf trip together. There’s something extremely powerful and bonding about the fact that water covers most of the planet and you can do it anywhere and for most of your life. Whereas something like skateboarding, at a certain point you’re going to wave the white flag and just watch from the sidelines.
On the surface, surfing seems like it would be a place for progressive thinking, but surfing is the most reluctant to change compared to other lifestyle sports. It likes things the way they are, so when you come in with new shit, people want to march in with their ideals and let you know why this thing shouldn’t work or should.
This story is from the Volume 60, Issue 3 edition of Surfer.
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This story is from the Volume 60, Issue 3 edition of Surfer.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
60 Years Ahead
We had a whole plan for this year. Funny, right? Surfer's 60 year anniversary volume was going to be filled with stories nodding to SURFER’s past, with cover concepts paying homage to the magazine’s most iconic imagery. Our new Page One depicts something that’s never happened in surfing before, let alone on a prior SURFER cover. And our table of contents was completely scrapped and replaced as we reacted to the fizzing, sparking, roiling world around us. In other words, 2020 happened to SURFER, just like it happened to you.
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few
THE LGBTQ+ WAVE
Surf culture has a long history of marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, but a new generation of queer surfers is working to change that
For Generations to Come
Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice
Christina Koch, 41
Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman
END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public
What They Don't Tell You
How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?
Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything
Helpful reminders for the quarantine era
The Art of Being Seen
How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible
