We often hear that black people don't swim or do water sports.

For example, many consider surfing a white people activity, but this is a bona fide white

lie. This is two-minute black history, but you didn't learn in school.

Like swimming and other water sports, many people consider surfing white people activities,

but this is one of their biggest lies. When it comes to surfing, we did it first. Popular

histories claim that Polynesians were the only people to develop surfing. That the first

written account of surfing was in Hawaii in 1778, or that white filmmaker Bruce Brown introduced

surfing to West Africa. According to Professor and author of Undercurrents of Power,

aquatic culture in the African diaspora, Kevin Dawson, none of this is true.

The first known written account of wave writing was in the 1640s in present-day Ghana.

Surfing swelled with economic opportunities for coastal Africans to reach offshore fisheries,

as early as the 1400s, they designed surf canoes that could slice through 10 foot high waves.

White supremacy campaign to convince the world water wasn't meant for us, yet tides hug African

coastlines for over 18,000 miles. Surf canoes taught white people surfing when many could barely swim.

Accounts indicate that by the 1700s enslaved people were surfing or surf canoeing everywhere,

from South Carolina to Brazil. Today, collectives like Black Girls Surf and Mommywada continue this rich

legacy. White supremacy has always tried to drown us out. We must know the truth about our people,

so we never have to suffer like fish out of water from white lies.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past. This has been Two Minute Black

History, a podcast by Push Black. Show your support by sharing this episode on your social media

and join us in amplifying stories we all deserve to know.