The Largest Gathering of Black Surfers Returns to Huntington Beach This Weekend

A Great Day in the Stoke empowers Black surfers in Surf City, USA with a surf competition, free surf lessons, beach yoga, and more.

Surf culture has given so much to the world—rad tunes, gnarly slang, Point Break—and the surf community is famously creative and chill. But in many parts of the world, it’s not always a welcoming, inclusive, or diverse group. That’s where A Great Day in the Stoke comes in. The largest gathering of Black surfers is returning to Huntington Beach this Saturday, September 16, for the second consecutive year with a surf competition, surf lessons, yoga, and music to celebrate and empower Black surfers and novices alike.

The central goal of the event is all about surfing, of course. Nathan Fluellen, the event’s founder, is a TV host, producer, entrepreneur, and advocate for the Black surfing community. He created this event to foster the growth of Black competitive surfers at the professional level but also to offer beginning surf lessons to attendees to help inspire the Black community to feel more at home in the ocean on a casual and fun level, too.

Photo by Earl Gibson III, courtesy of A Great Day in the Stoke

The event runs just about all day, starting at 7 am with the first heats of a surf competition that continues until 3 pm. While the competition is going on, they’ll offer free surf lessons in the shallows, beginning at 8 am and running until 2 pm. From 10 am to 11 am there will be a beach yoga practice to help center spirits and stretch limbs. It all wraps up with an awards ceremony and after party from 4 to 6 pm to celebrate the competition winners and dance the rest of your energy away.

learning to surf — *Photo by Jonathan Galendez, courtesy of A Great Day in the Stoke*

Aside from the scheduled events, there will also be a vendor market, with surf gear available to demo and samples from sponsors like Black Girl Sunscreen and Yeti.

The ocean is a healing place, and one we all deserve to enjoy equally. A Great Day in the Stoke looks to be a great, fun, joyous way to move Southern California surfers closer to that goal.

*Photo by Jonathan Galendez, courtesy of A Great Day in the Stoke*

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