A 1,000-year-old surfing tradition from Africa to the Americas

“The Wade in the Water Project aims to empower the Black community with knowledge of the ancestral lineage connecting them to surfing and the ocean.” — David Mesfin, Creative Director

Sierra Rqequel often found herself emotionally trapped with the ups and downs of the dark and tumultuous experiences of her past that haunted her. Ironically, it would be the ebb and flow of one of nature’s most wonderous forces that saved her life.

Photo by David Mesfin | Sierra Raequel at historic Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica, California.

Originally from Dallas, Georgia, said she was looking for a way out from past mistakes. She considered ending it all as a way to erase everything and start over. Eventually, she sought therapy which helped her manage her emotions and gain mental health strategies. This led to spiritual awakening and reconnection with God fulfilling a void.

“Through both of those is when the light bulb went off in my head. I got my mental together. I got my spiritual together. I needed a physical outlet that is going to allow me to not only mentally process my emotions, but also, I need a way to let go of those feelings physically, so I can stop carrying it,” she said.

Raequel’s decision to take a surfing class brought her perspective back into clear view, helping her to focus on total healing — mind, body and soul.

“Water is very liberating.” she said. “I think that’s a beautiful connection.”

Now a freestyle surfer and model, Raequel joins a host of others who are featured in a three-component multimedia project developed by California creative director David Mesfin to explore the historic and recent aquatic and surfing cultures in Black communities across Africa and America.

Wade in the Water Trailer

“Wade in the Water” is a narrative journey told through a long-form documentary which will be making the film festival rounds in 2023. On June 2nd, the project will kick off with a multimedia show and fine art portrait prints for sale at Mami Wata Store in Abbot Kinney Blvd. Los Angeles, a non-fungible token (NFT) sale of limited-edition portraits. The NFTs will be available on VAST.app and feature the cover song “Wade in the Water” by Reggae artist Luciano, Sahfilli Matturi, Founder of Sofly Surf School, and Sierra Raequel. Prints of the portraits will also be available on May 19th for purchase at www.wadeinthewaterproject.com. 20% of the proceeds from the sale of the artwork and NFTs will be donated to several nonprofit organizations that are committed to creating a place for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) to connect with surfing. Those organizations include the Black Surfers Collective, Sofly Surf Lessons, Color the Water, Black Surf Club Santa Cruz, and the Black Surfing Association.

The NFT and website sale will be accompanied by several live gallery showings of the portrait prints and sneak peek of the documentary on June 2nd Mami Wata Store in Abbot Kinney, on July 14th at Patagonia Santa Monica Store, late July at Band of Vices Gallery in Los Angeles, and Perspectives Space in San Diego in August.

Mesfin was born in Ethiopia and migrated to St. Augustine, Florida as a child. While living with his adoptive father, Bishop Dimitrios Couchell, Mesfin quickly fell in love with surfing. As someone who has been part of that culture through adulthood, he set out on a mission to examine the spiritual relationship between humanity and nature in an effort to inspire and support the next generation of Black surfers.

Photo by Beyin Abraha | David Mesfin at historic Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica, California.

“The showings will introduce the whole project,” said Mesfin. “At the gallery showings, attendees will be able to see a trailer of the documentary. The feature-length documentary is scheduled for a major film festival tour and world premiere in early 2023.”

The featured art pieces, photographed and mastered by Mesfin, highlight surfing pioneers and future leaders of Southern California’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) surfing community. The fine-art detail of each portrait includes an overlay of African Fern Pine.

“I see the trees as a connection back to Africa and nature. I see the composition as a representation of how the original surfboards used in Africa were carved out of a simple tree,” he said. “The trees can represent our roots back to Africa as well as Mother Nature.”

Multimedia Fine Portrait Art by David Mesfin | Sahfilli Matturi Founder of Sofly Surf School

Multimedia Fine Art Portrait by David Mesfin | Lizelle Jackson, Co-Founder of Color the Water

Multimedia Fine Art Portrait by David Mesfin | Tony L. Corley, Founder of Black Surfing Association in 1975

Multimedia Fine Art Portrait by David Mesfin | Esabella Grace Bonner, Founder of Black Surf Club Santa Cruz

Multimedia Fine Art Portrait by David Mesfin | Gregory Rachal Jr., surfer representing Black Surfers Collective

Photo by David Mesfin | Black Surfers Collective Nick Gabaldón Day 2022 at Bay Street in Santa Monica, California.

“Wade in the Water” is the first full feature-length documentary about Black surfers by a Black director. “The piece chronicles the 1,000-year-old surfing tradition along the West African coastline and later into the United States,” Mesfin said. The documentary features the voices of those showcased in the artwork and historians, recounting the progression of Black surfing and telling stories of inspiration and hope for the future.

“There are three major themes explored in the documentary. The first examines the origins of surfing in Africa,” Mesfin said.

Illustration by Anthony Moravian | Historians account for surfing in Africa dating back a thousand years. The first written record of surfing in Africa was in 1640, preceding the European citation of surfing in Hawaii and Oceania. Source: Prof. Kevin Dawson

Second, the challenges of perception and exclusion are addressed as the film explores European misconceptions of African aquatic culture, and the pervasive policies that have shaped the development of aquatic culture in the Caribbean and North America.

Third, the spiritual connection to the ocean is developed from a historical perspective as well as through the aspirations and stories of African American surfers from Southern California, Caribbean and Hawaii.

Photo by David Mesfin | Julian Willams Pro-Am Surfer in El Porto, California.

“The spiritual theme is a very interesting part of it,” Mesfin said.

Having a life-long love of surfing, Mesfin was inspired to create the project after a series of events that led him to delve more into the history of the sport. He said in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, he read a book published by Mami Wata titled “AFROSURF.” In the book, Kevin Dawson, a professor of history at the University of California, Merced, contributed a section titled, “A Brief History of Surfing in Africa and the Diaspora.” Mesfin said the reading helped introduce him better to the 1,000-year-old surfer tradition of the Black community.

At the same time, Mesfin said he was emotionally touched by the death of George Floyd, an African American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minnesota in May of 2020.

“As someone in advertising, I am sure people will ask why I am making a documentary and art show,” he said. “But George Floyd’s death had a lot to do with it. I felt like I needed to do something. I needed an outlet and Mother Ocean and surfers have always been my emotional, physical and spiritual escape.”

Mesfin said he turned to what he knew, having been a part of the surfing community since the early 90’s in St. Augustine, and that gave him the desire to produce something that would inspire and educate while at the same time to celebrate a culture and the people who support it.

Photo by David Mesfin: (L to R) Executive Producer Beyin Abraha. Sahfilli Matturi founder of Sofly Surf School, Kayitta Johnson founder of @Black.Surfers

He teamed up with his executive producer, Beyin Abraha, co-producer Michael Warner with Frontage Road Studios, editor Teferi Seifu (think he has a company too), friends Wondwossen Dikran and Bemnet Yemesgen, music producer Anthony Cargill from AC Management, sports lawyer Jeremy M. Evans from California Sports Law, son Ezra Mesfin, and family to create the project

`“You want to get your voice out, but other people’s voices, too,” he said. “I was looking for an additional outlet to be heard, and surfing was the way I could do that.”

“Wade in the Water” featured participants:

Kevin Dawson, author of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and professor of history at the University of California, Merced.

Alison Rose Jefferson, author of Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era (University of Nebraska Press, 2020) and independent historian.

Tony L. Corley, Founder, Black Surfing Association in 1975

Sharon Schaffer, First African American Pro Woman Surfer

Rick Blocker, Black Surfing Advocate

Vicky Williams, Pioneer Surfer

Jessa Williams, Founder, Intrsxtn Surf

Beyin Abraha, Surfer

Tre’Lan Michael, Model, Artist and Surfer

Mateo Canu, Surfer

Sierra Raequel, Surfer

Natasha Smith, Surfer

Kayitta Johnson, Founder, @Black.Surfers

Lizelle Jackson, Co-Founder, Color the Water

Sahfilli Matturi, Founder, Sofly Surf School

Esabella Grace Bonner, Founder, Black Surf Club Santa Cruz

Gregory Rachal, Co-Founder, Black Surfers Collective

Gregory Rachal Jr., Surfer, Black Surfers Collective

Sidy Camara, Surfer from Senegal

Chris Dennis, Co-founder, Waves for Hope in Trinidad

Amra Mesfin, Daughter of David Mesfin

Julian Williams, Surfer from Hawaii

Dedon Kamathil, Founder, Pan African Beach Days. Credit: Jason Gittens, ​​Kevin Cooke and Darrick Clayton