Surfing
Surfing
Paying It (Actually, Pushing It) Forward
A look at how organizations like City Surf Project are fostering an environment for generational mentorship
Josh Salmon was fine in the pool. His mom played water polo in high school and made sure he learned how to swim.
The ocean was another matter altogether. “Having waves and whitewater, that was super different,” recalls Salmon, a 19-year-old with an easy, confident smile. “But I picked it up kinda quick.”
He adapted to the waves, and is now comfortable riding them, with help from the City Surf Project, which runs programs in Northern California public schools introducing students to surfing and, in many cases, to the ocean itself.
WATCH: The City Surf Project | In Plain Sight
Salmon estimates that fewer than 5% of his classmates at Mission High School in San Francisco had ever attempted surfing. “A lot of kids – especially kids of color like myself – would never expect to be out in the water, surfing,” he said. “They couldn’t really even imagine themselves doing it – until they’re doing it. And then you see this amazed look on their face.”
In Plain Sight | City Surf Project
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City Surf Project is dedicated to creating that experience, over and over. It does this by removing obstacles for young people who have been historically underrepresented on the coastline, and in the lineup. Equipment – wetsuits and boards – and instruction are provided, as is a ride to the beach. To date, the nonprofit has connected over 2,000 youth to the ocean.
The program is hugely popular at Mission High, said Salmon, “’cause it’s so much more fun than getting dressed in your gym clothes and running the mile.”
A lot of kids – especially kids of color like myself – would never expect to be out in the water, surfing.
In addition to its Surfing 101 program, for which students can get PE credit, CSP offers instructor training to high schoolers, some of whom, like Salmon, go on to become “alumni instructors.” They get additional vocational training from professionals such as Ocean Lifeguards, local EMTs and the San Francisco Fire Department. Mentees become mentors. Thus does the program sustain itself.
Between his comfort level in the water and skateboarding chops – Salmon was recently sponsored by Vans – surfing came more easily to him than most. Since the light did go on for him, it’s been life changing.
He can’t see himself living anywhere “too far from the ocean, or some kind of surf break.”
“It’s too relaxing, too much fun. It really is a part of me now. I can’t get away from it. I’ve gotta get out there.”
In Plain Sight | City Surf Project
© Red Bull Media House
He takes no less pleasure in paying it – or, more precisely, pushing it forward.
After new participants in the program have piled out of the City Surf Project van and completed their stretches and practiced their pop-ups on the beach, Salmon and his fellow instructors stand in the water and literally push them forward on their boards when a small wave comes along.
In Plain Sight | City Surf Project
© Red Bull Media House
The newbies, says Salmon, “are way braver than you would think. They’ll get tossed and rolled and hit on the head” with their foam-top boards “and be just, like, ‘Whatever.’”
One young man had his nose sliced by the fin of his board, recalled Salmon, who dashed over to a nearby Taco Bell and grabbed a fistful of napkins, to help stanch the bleeding. (Yes, there is a Taco Bell 100 yards from Linda Mar Beach, south of San Francisco.)
The fellow with the cut nose was done for that day, but paddled out the next.
High school kids can be highly self-conscious, Salmon observes. “You go through this phase where you’re like, ‘I gotta be stone-faced. I can’t show too much emotion.’”
That reserve tends to vanish in the ocean. Learning to surf is difficult. It's not intuitive for someone who didn't grow up around the water. Making progress in that journey, catching one’s first waves, “that’s a huge accomplishment,” Salmon says. Which is why kids come out of the water “with the biggest smiles on their faces.”
“There aren’t too many places you can get that feeling.”
Looking for ways to support? Red Bull is matching up to $5,000 for any donations made to City Surf Project between now and July 31, 2022. Click here to donate. Donations will go toward supporting City Surf Projects’ Summer 2022 Programs.
