Water sports and summertime go together like Bert and Ernie, and gosh knows children need summer hobbies that go beyond reading and video games. From water-skiing to bodyboarding, just getting out in the water on a warm day can really help kids feel connected to nature.
Surfing in particular is the ultimate summer activity, with tons of health benefits, including developing core strength and a healthy heart. But you don’t often think of surfing beyond grown white men outside of Australia, so the sport is in desperate need of a more relatable face.
Enter Black Girls Surf, the award-winning nonprofit surfer training camp for girls and women in Senegal.
The team was set up in 2014 by founder Rhonda “Coach Rho” Harper, who was concerned with the lack of both female and Black representation in the surfing world. Fast-forward to the pandemic of 2020, and BGS now has its own camp where girls can stay and learn the ropes. Rhonda told Glorious Sport, “We wanted to make sure that the girls were in a stable environment where they could grow and build on their surfing skills, and now my girls are on their way to the Junior Olympics in 2026.”
Rhonda has been training girls since the age of 15. Her protégé, Khadjou Sambe, went on to become the first female professional surfer of Dakar and Senegal's first surfer to attend the Olympics. So needless to say, in such a short amount of time the face of surfing is finally diversifying.
BGS has opened up the world of surfing for Senegalese girls.
Since 2018, over 400 BGS girls have had the chance to travel all over the world to compete and train in various world-class surf breaks. And that number is only going to rise. The group also provides funding for education, museum trips, and general fitness training. Essentially, the group is a lifestyle and a way for the girls to truly experience youth before making their way into the working world if they choose to do so.
BGS has been mostly personally funded by Rhonda.
There is a GoFundMe page you can still donate to. However, recently the program has come into some luck with brand sponsorships, such as a deal with activewear brand Hurley, which launched a collection of beachwear looks. Excitingly, BGS is also one of the faces of Disney’s live action The Little Mermaid, alongside McDonald’s.
An ad was created spotlighting BGS and many of the competitors currently on the team. The ad focuses on the importance of girls dreaming big and how surfing is empowering. McDonald's has donated funds to the group, as well as invited several surfers to attend the premiere of the movie.
This type of representation is particularly important considering the racist backlash the movie faced after casting Halle Bailey, a Black singer and actress, as the little mermaid herself, Ariel. Not only should young Black girls see themselves in fiction, but they should see themselves in reality, too.
Society is very hateful when it comes to change, whether it’s about a Black mermaid or Afro-Latino Spider-Man, or the way we view sports heroes. There’s always going to be someone complaining about not seeing whiteness amplified. This is why it’s so important to spotlight people of color, especially women of color, in media and in daily life. Normalize diversity, sponsor organizations run by people of color, change the status quo, and highlight the marginalized for a change. Future generations will benefit from it, no matter how small the effort.
In her own article for Thrillist, Rhonda talks about how the group has affected the girls for the better: "Nobody's worried about anything. They’ve just had the most fun they’ve ever had in their lives."
And that, to me, is the most important part of this organization. It focuses on having fun and the girls being who they are, without the stressors and red tape of competitive sports. It's not about the awards or being the best; it's about loving what you do.
'That’s what I want Black women and girls to understand with Black Girls Surf.'
“You can be anything that you want," says Rhonda. "You don't have to be a great surfer. We just want to empower you to be your best self."
If you would like to support Black Girls Surf, check out its Linktree for fundraising, interviews, features, and more.
