(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] In the midst of the George Floyd tragedy,
hundreds of surfers in New York's Rockaway
came together in their own way to honor his life
and to protest against racial injustices.
- [Group] Black lives matter!
- When things happen in the community,
you gotta speak up on it.
When you're silent, you're violent.
That's why I speak my mind, so you don't always have
to listen, but for you young people, listen.
And they came and it was beautiful.
(uplifting music)
I'm Lou Harris. I'm the East Coast founder
of the Black Surfing Association
and we provide free surf lessons, free skateboard lessons
for the kids of Rockaway.
A lot of kids don't have money to save for a board.
That's why I'm glad I get donations
and I get to give them away for free.
We'll do surfing on Saturdays from 8 to 10,
and then we'll do skateboarding from 11 to one Saturday
and same things on Sundays
and during the summer, it's everyday.
(cheerful music)
I got into surfing cause I moved here 15 years ago
and I needed an outlet, I needed something to do.
I walked up to the boardwalk on beach 90th street
and I saw people surfing.
I was like whoa.
They surf here?
I taught myself how to surf
and I've been surfing ever since.
You know, I surf big waves, small waves, hurricane waves.
I remember there wasn't too many black surfers.
It was me and maybe a couple of other kids.
These young, you know, African Americans they live here
and they should know what goes on in their own backyard.
You should know the sandbar, you should know the drop offs,
you should know all that.
It's good for young kids to get exposed
because I want kids to see that the line up doesn't have
to be particularly white all the time.
That's what it usually is.
It's great to see a Black face here and there,
Spanish face here, Asian face here.
- [Narrator] Lou's mission uses surfing not only
to empower kids in his community, but also as a tool
to bring people together.
(inspirational music)
And recently, he did exactly that.
Lou organized a paddle out to raise awareness
for Black Lives Matter.
- A paddle out is most of the time when a surfer dies.
You paddle out into a circle and you throw flowers
into the water and you splash the water.
Today was a great paddle out
because we got to say all the black lives matter.
I thought it was gonna be a hundred people.
This was over 300 and I'm still in shock.
I'm just happy who came and, like again, I'm blown away,
but you know white people,
they're the one starting the chant.
They're the one saying no justice, no peace.
It's Black people getting killed,
but this was predominately white people
and they're beautiful people
and they're getting sick of it too.
- [Group] Don't shoot!
- When people see me, you know, they don't see a surfer.
They see a Black guy.
But this is my backyard and I love it.
Today was probably the most successful day
of my life being an African American man.
I mean, my little voice started a 300 person movement today.