Montreal’s surfing community is growing, but not everyone says they see themselves reflected in the sport. Local surfer Chloé Mocombe says she is working to change that, starting with Black women. A trip to Costa Rica 13 years ago got her hooked, she recalls, but back home in Montreal, she says she’s often found herself as the only woman in the water - let alone the only person of colour. “It’s kind of normal,” said Mocombe. “If you think about surf magazines, you never see a girl like me represented, or other Black women, or dark Black women.” Mocombe says that lack of representation obscures a history that goes back centuries, with the sport’s roots tracing back to the African diaspora. “In what we call now Ghana, in 1640, people with planks of wood, so it’s been something that we have in our ancestry,” she said. She says racism, cultural narratives and limited access to water all play a role, along with the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, when the ocean became a mass grave for enslaved Africans. “I feel that they lost that because they got scared of the water and everything that happened; that trauma is there,” said Mocombe. For local surfer Ben Jackson, opening up access to the sport starts with addressing a fundamental barrier. “A lot of Black people can’t swim, or they think they can’t swim,” said Jackson. “This planet is more than 70 per cent water. It’s the most important thing you can learn.” He says Montreal’s surfing community does include many Latino surfers, as well as several Black men, including himself, but only one Black woman that he knows of. Still, a lot has changed in the past decade. Women have become a bigger part of Montreal’s surfing scene, though some say there’s still room to grow. “Women, we want to get good fast,” said surfer Joëlle Paquette. “We feel very self-conscious. You have to just be able to fail, have fun failing, and then at one point, you’ll get better.” As more women join, they say the whole community benefits. “The vibe is completely different, and we cheer for each other,” said surfer Mélissa Wilson. “We give each other advice. We party, we wave together. It’s such a fun time.” That sense of community took on a new meaning for Mocombe last week. She returned from California, where she placed second at “A Great Day in the Stoke,” an international competition celebrating Black surf culture. “There’s really a feeling to be somewhere where you’re surrounded with people that look like you,” said Mocombe. “It’s part of us; nature is part of us; water is part of us.” She’s now working to bring more of that feeling home to Montreal. For the past two years, Mocombe has organized Afro River Surf, an introduction to river surfing for the Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) community. She says she hopes to help more Black and racialized people see themselves in the sport and reclaim their place on the water.
