The First Black Surfer and His Tragic Death

September 16, 11:42 PMSurf ExaminerPat Pemberton

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Santa Monica Surf Clinic To Take Place at Former "Negroes Only" Beach

In 1973, Tony Corley wrote a letter to Surfer Magazine, hoping to diversify the lineup at his home break, on the Central Coast of California.

"In ten years of wave riding," he wrote. "I've met only two black brothers who've sought the sensuous pleasures found in the tubes of Mother Ocean.”

He'd heard of other B.S.B.'s (black surfing brothers), he wrote, but had not yet crossed their paths. 

"So now I turn to SURFER in hopes that you might help bring together B.S.B's locally, nationally and world wide," Corley continued. "Who knows, maybe a Black Surfing Association (BSA) may evolve from this attempt to communicate and congregate."

After the letter was published in the magazine's January issue, one of the first responses was an ugly threat that began, "Stay out of the water coon . . . the ocean is for humans not spooks." On that letter, the writer had drawn a crude picture of a black man with a bone in his nose, boiling in a pot, with a noose and the letters “KKK” nearby.

Nonetheless, more positive letters arrived afterward and indeed the BSA was born. Thirty-five years later, it's still going strong.

In fact, the Southern California chapter of the BSA will hold a free clinic this Saturday at the Ink Well in Santa Monica. It’s a fitting place, since the Ink Well was a “negroes only” beach back in the day.

In the storied history of surfing, rarely do you hear about the African-American experience. Part of it is, obviously, because so few African-Americans surf. But there is a history.

In fact, it pretty much begins with Nick Gabaldon, the first documented black surfer, who surfed the Ink Well and eventually Malibu, where he befriended people like Greg Noll, Mickey Munoz and Buzzy Trent.

Sadly, on a 10-foot day in 1951 – during one of the biggest swells known to hit the area -- Gabaldon, a 24-year-old World War II veteran, crashed into Malibu pier. His board was found that day, but it took a few days for Gabaldon’s body to wash onto the shore.

Six days before his death, Gabaldon, an honor student at Santa Monica City College, had written a poem titled “Lost Lives,” which included this stanza:

 Scores and scores have fallen prey,
To the salt of animosity,
And many more will victims be,
Of the capricious, vindictive sea.

Earlier this year a plaque was installed at the Ink Well, commemorating African-Americans and Gabaldon.