{"id":403514,"date":"2026-07-18T13:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403514\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T13:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:47:10","slug":"people-started-calling-me-the-black-mermaid-of-san-diego-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403514\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People started calling me the Black mermaid of San Diego\u2019 \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

It started in 2020 as a one-time paddle out to honor George Floyd<\/a>, a Black man in Minneapolis killed by a White police officer that year after he knelt on Floyd\u2019s neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd\u2019s death sparked global protests against police brutality and racism, and Risa Bell wanted to bring the community together locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I thought would be a small gathering, ended up being thousands of people at the beach,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of the things I realized when I was looking around is that, as beautiful as it was, there were people from my community that were missing. There weren\u2019t a lot of people of color there, so I just started to think, \u2018Wow, they\u2019re really missing out on healing in community, healing at the coast.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That one day turned into posts on her Instagram, giving people of color free surf lessons, and eventually her nonprofit, Paddle for Peace<\/a>. Her organization offers various programs designed to get folks of color and inner-city communities to the beach to learn about ocean safety, using nature to heal, and going to Title I schools to teach kids marine science, Indigenous stewardship, and increase the numbers of people of color in marine science and ocean conservation spaces. Bell grew up in Guam and always felt connected to the water, but didn\u2019t start surfing (longboard; her preferred spots include La Jolla Shores and Tourmaline Surfing Park) until almost nine years ago, and it was kind of lonely in the beginning. Her mom is Chamorro and her dad is Black, and she didn\u2019t see many other surfers who looked like her. Paddle for Peace has been her opportunity to change that.<\/p>\n

Today, she lives in North Park and runs her nonprofit full time, though she previously worked as a clinical director in the health care space. She took some time to talk about her work to change the narrative around Black people and the ocean and surfing, and how the waves helped her heal.<\/p>\n

Q: Why was it important to you to address that narrative about Black people and the ocean and the beach?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Because the ocean changed my life. I grew up in foster care, and even though I grew up on an island, I was very disconnected from the water. Even living here in San Diego, I didn\u2019t see anyone that looked like me, surfing. The first time I took a surf lesson was in Hawaii, where I saw a bunch of Black and Brown people surfing, and it was the first time that I saw a bunch of people of color surfing. I tried it and absolutely fell in love with it and, over the years, it\u2019s just become a place of healing, a place to learn, a place to be in community. There have been multiple studies done showing that blue spaces have a significant impact on our mental and physical well-being, and there\u2019s a history of our community and our cultures not getting to the water. This is because of historic racism, redlining, segregation, slavery. Our ancestors were not allowed in pools, they weren\u2019t allowed to own places by the coast, and when they did try, it was taken from them. This trauma has been passed on, and even though this is no longer a thing that\u2019s occurring, the generational impact still exists. That\u2019s why you don\u2019t see a lot of Black people at the beach, so it was important for me, in 2020, to think about why is this still a thing? Not just, \u2018Why aren\u2019t Black people going to the beach?\u2019 but mental health and therapy are very taboo in our culture. Again, multiple studies have been done showing that time in nature impacts our mental health, so when I think of our community and all of the suffering we go through, all of the racism we face, and microaggressions and disconnection, we live in a place where there\u2019s so much water, so why aren\u2019t our people going and what\u2019s the barrier to connection for them? What\u2019s holding us back from connecting to the water? There\u2019s a multitude of reasons that I\u2019ve uncovered and been able to create programs around.<\/p>\n

One, the historical trauma that\u2019s been passed down, the stereotype that Black people don\u2019t swim, and the fear that our parents put on us of going near the water: \u201cDon\u2019t go into the water; you\u2019ll drown.\u201d Or, they don\u2019t know how to swim, therefore they don\u2019t teach their kids how to swim. Then, we have the socioeconomic barriers. When you go there and you don\u2019t see people that look like you; getting to the beach takes two-and-a-half hours on a bus; when you get there, it\u2019s about $50 to rent a surfboard and a wetsuit, $120 for a surf lesson. Nine-point-five times out of 10, it\u2019s going to be someone that doesn\u2019t look like you just pushing you into waves because that\u2019s their job, instead of helping you work through any fears that you may have. And, let\u2019s say you do take a surf lesson and you love it, a surfboard is $300 minimum, a wetsuit is $120, and then do you have the ocean education? It\u2019s an expensive thing, and just affording it-gas, resources, parking-and then you have the lack of education component to it. How do you safely get in the ocean, and can you swim? Can you identify rip currents? Can you get out of them? Even if you do learn all that, are you going to be the only Black or Brown person there? Are you going to be harassed? Are you going to be stared at? So, there\u2019s a multitude of reasons that prevent our communities from getting to the ocean, and a big thing is the lack of representation, as well.<\/p>\n

What I love about North Park\u2026<\/p>\n

I love the walkability of it, and I like how it\u2019s more mature. One of the things that I really enjoy about it is North Park used to not be the North Park of today. I used to be around North Park and it\u2019s very gentrified now. I like walking around and remembering what it used to be. People ask me all the time, and I don\u2019t give specifics. I\u2019m like, \u201cAh, you had to be there,\u201d but it\u2019s nice to still have that nostalgia, that connection to my past. Also, living there and just sitting in my accomplishments. I never thought I would be living in one of the top neighborhoods now; I used to run these streets back then, and it was nothing like it is now, so it\u2019s just a reminder of how far I\u2019ve come.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Where did you grow up and what kind of role did the ocean have in your childhood and in your family?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0My mom is Chamorro, from the island of Guam, and my dad\u2019s African American, from Sacramento. I was born in Germany and then I grew up in Guam, and I left when I was 16. While I was in Guam, I was in foster care and it wasn\u2019t a great situation. My foster parents didn\u2019t take me to the beaches or anything, but me and my siblings would play in the jungle and we had these underwater caves that were secret; you only knew if you lived there, so we would go and play in the jungle and dive in the caves. So, for my whole life, I\u2019ve always felt pulled to the water. There\u2019s always been a whisper in the back of my mind.<\/p>\n

When I moved to San Diego, I discovered Mission Beach, and I thought that was the only beach in San Diego up until about, maybe, 10 years ago. So, for a long time, I would only go to Mission Beach and I would not see anyone that looked like me surfing and just hanging out on the sand. It wasn\u2019t until about eight years ago, when I went to Hawaii and did my first surf lesson where I fell in love with it, and I started to be in the water in different ways. I wasn\u2019t just swimming in it or sitting by it, I became a surfer. I would do open ocean swims. I\u2019m a certified diver now. I\u2019m ocean safety- and lifeguard-trained, and I\u2019ve devoted my life to bringing kids of color to the ocean. My relationship is a lot stronger with the ocean now. It\u2019s like my church, I can\u2019t live without it and I feel very connected to it. And, I feel very connected to my culture because of it.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0How would you describe your experience as a biracial woman in the surfing community?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0My experience was very lonely to begin with. I didn\u2019t really have any surf friends and I didn\u2019t really have community, at the time. The friends that I had, none of them were ocean people and none of them surfed, so it was very lonely in the beginning. After I did the paddle-out, I started to meet more people and realized that I wasn\u2019t the only one. I found a surf break that was a little bit more diverse, but still only a handful of Black surfers; a lot of them were Filipino, Mexican, Hawaiian. So, I just started to meet more friends of all different backgrounds. One of the things that stood out is when I told people I surf, they seemed very shocked. They were like, \u201cYou surf? You don\u2019t look like a surfer,\u201d which is true because a lot of the media portrays blonde-haired White girls or White men as the posterchild surfer. That is just ironic to me, and very funny, because melanated people discovered surfing. A lot of people think that surfing originated in Hawaii, but Africa is the birthplace of humanity, and the only reason why Hawaii is kind of mainstream in discovering surfing is because that\u2019s where the colonizers went first and started documenting it. But, there\u2019s something called wave riding that existed in Africa long before, so surfing originated in Africa. It was called wave riding, and it\u2019s very much a part of African culture, just like it is Polynesian culture, which is our kin. (According to an excerpt from \u201cAfrosurf,\u201d<\/a> a book exploring African surf culture by African surf brand Mami Wata, UC Merced history professor Kevin Dawson, also the author of \u201cUndercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora,\u201d notes that some of the first accounts of surfing were documented in the 1640s in what is now Ghana.) So, when I go out there, I try not to focus on the disparities; I just focus on how proud I am to be doing something that my ancestors were not allowed to do, and how proud I am to show that Black people do surf. On the other side, I\u2019m very proud to be in the water, as my people on the island are born to be in. We\u2019re island people, and even though I was disconnected from it, it\u2019s still a way of life on Guam. People of color all over the world surf-in Mexico, Brazil, Samoa-people are water people, and it\u2019s not until they\u2019re brought over to the U.S. that their disconnection from water really starts. They\u2019re disconnected from their birthright, but if you go to Mexico, Africa, Polynesia, wherever you go in the world with a majority BIPOC people, they are divers, fishermen, surfers, swimmers, and very connected to the water. It\u2019s something about the American way that makes us feel like we don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Have you seen or experienced any improvements or evolution in the kind of reception you and other people of color receive when you paddle out?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Yeah, I feel people aren\u2019t as shocked anymore because I have made a name for myself in San Diego, and my organization is Black-run and focuses on predominantly on Black children and youth, so we\u2019ve kind of made a name for ourselves. We\u2019re really starting to see more surfers of color arise.<\/p>\n

I do see a change in perception from the community in diversifying the coast. We still have a long way to go, but the reception I get now is very welcoming. Some people even started calling me the Black Mermaid of San Diego, which I find very funny, but it\u2019s becoming more mainstream in the surf culture here in San Diego. Obviously, there\u2019s still some resistance because surf culture is very White male-dominated and there\u2019s a lot of tribalism, so if you didn\u2019t grow up on the beach, or live there, they\u2019re very rude to you. They think that because they grew up by the beach, they own the waves, but it\u2019s a privilege. So, that is still there, but we don\u2019t go to those beaches, so I don\u2019t experience it often.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Walk us through how your organization works. How are you connecting underserved youth to the coast and the ocean?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0During my time here, I\u2019ve lived in Chula Vista, southeastern San Diego, and City Heights, which is where most of our kids come from, so I know a lot of people and that\u2019s kind of how we started, just spreading the word that way. Now, we partner with a lot of schools, government agencies, community organizations; that\u2019s how we get our kids, a lot of word of mouth. We haven\u2019t been having them sign up for our programs on the website because as soon as we send it out to our partners, it fills up within a day or two. We have a wait list of over 250 kids.<\/p>\n

One of our programs is called Surf and Science, and that\u2019s a four-week program where we take the kids to the beach for four weeks. We teach them about ocean conservation, marine science, ocean safety, and we teach them how to surf. One of the things that I\u2019m really proud of is that at least 50% of our volunteers are people of color with lived experience. As we started to grow Surf and Science, there are more White people who surf than Black people, and they\u2019re our friends and allies, but we needed more people of color as we grew our programs. So, I said, \u201cIf we can\u2019t find them, we\u2019ll create them,\u201d and I created Rising Tides, which is a year-long youth leadership program. We meet with our kids for a year, we teach them how to surf, and we teach them leadership skills, mentorship skills, conflict resolution, emotional regulation, and we\u2019re preparing the next generation of leaders. Then, they get a paid internship with Paddle for Peace and they work in our programs.<\/p>\n

With that one, it was also growing very quickly, so how do we reach more kids with no funding? We created Coastal Ninja Academy, which is a program where we bring the beach to the classroom. We go into Title I schools for five weeks and teach the kids science, marine biology, ocean animals, Indigenous knowledge and stewardship, and then we take them on a beach field trip. Through that program, we serve hundreds and thousands of kids throughout the year because we just bring the program into the school.<\/p>\n

Then, we have Ocean Sprouts, which is our learn-to-swim program for families. Thinking about how, back in the day with segregation and slavery, there are parents out there who don\u2019t know how to swim because their parents didn\u2019t teach them, and their parents didn\u2019t teach them because their great grandparents didn\u2019t teach them. So, this is a program for all ages that teaches people how to swim. This is a six-week program, and all of our programs are culturally competent, meaning they\u2019re run by people of color with lived experiences. We go over swim hair care and skincare, we have swim caps that fit dreads and braids and Afros, we have wetsuits that fit bigger bodies, and we teach the kids the history about why we\u2019re disconnected from the water and how each culture uses the water back in our origin places. There are people of color represented in the program, teaching them, that look like them and understand where they\u2019re coming from.<\/p>\n

We currently use something called the Blue Prescription, which is our newest initiative. This is a preventative mental health framework that\u2019s embedded in all of our programs. Even though kids are doing something different in each program, the whole reason we started was healing in nature, healing on our coasts. So, the Blue Prescription is co-managed by our clinical psychologists to validate the outcomes of the work that we\u2019re doing, to show that time in nature does heal anxiety and depression and leads to community bonding. Our work is not clinical; we do not do referrals, we do not diagnose. We bring people in community to heal, and our clinical psychologists make sure that when we\u2019re collecting data, we\u2019re able to show funders that what we\u2019re doing is working because data and stories really paint the picture for them, so that we can continue to sustain the work. Eventually, we want to bring this model into hospitals, mental health clinics, and juvenile justice departments, so that they stop sending our kids to therapy all the time and try nature and community first. All of our programs are 100% free.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Part of your organization\u2019s mission includes connecting young people \u201cto the ocean\u2019s transformative and healing power.\u201d Are you comfortable sharing how the ocean has been transformative for you? What it\u2019s helped you to heal?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Growing up in foster care, (I was) very disconnected, a very angry kid, very confused, and I was just in my environment and mimicking what I learned, what I was around. Once I discovered the ocean, and the freedom and the space to think and process, it changed a lot for me. When you\u2019re out there surfing, you have to be patient. You can\u2019t catch every wave, so that patience and the selectiveness is something you can bring back on land. The perseverance when you fall off a wave and you\u2019re able to get back up teaches you life lessons that when you fall back down, you get back up. It gives you the space to be away from technology and people and just process what you\u2019re thinking and feeling. When you\u2019re out there, you\u2019re not worried about what\u2019s beneath you. My love for surfing is greater than my fear of anything beneath me, so it teaches you to let go of that fear of the unknown. Then, the people that you meet while you\u2019re surfing\u2014the community\u2014it\u2019s a new space to just be and dream. I\u2019ve had a lot of hardships in my life, and every hard point in my life always brought me to the ocean to be able to just sit and write, and think and process, and learn something different. It\u2019s very quiet, especially as a diver. When you\u2019re underwater, you have no sound but your heartbeat, and you\u2019re able to just sit with your thoughts without a distraction. And, it\u2019s good exercise. The movement of it is releasing dopamine and endorphins. Overall, it\u2019s my church, it\u2019s my place of reprieve, and it\u2019s taught me so many life lessons that I hold near and dear to my heart.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is the best advice you\u2019ve ever received?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0I think the best advice I\u2019ve ever received probably would be that community is very messy, and it\u2019s very important to be able to distinguish that when you get your button pushed, the person pushing it did not install it, so it\u2019s our duty to figure out why we\u2019re triggered in that way and to lean in with curiosity to figure out where the other person is coming from, as well as the feelings that we\u2019re feeling, and take accountability for working through it.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0That I\u2019m very sensitive. I\u2019m very strong-presenting and getting (stuff) done, and I talk very loudly and bluntly, but I\u2019m a sensitive dreamer, for sure.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.<\/p>\n

A: My ideal weekend would start off by walking my dog in North Park to get a coffee at James Coffee Co. After that, I\u2019ll grab some lunch at Tacotarian because I\u2019m vegetarian, and then I\u2019ll head to the beach. I\u2019ll get a little surf session in, I\u2019ll sit down after and eat my food, and write. Then, I\u2019ll probably go to Sunset Cliffs, catch a sunset, and then I\u2019ll do a hot yoga session at Yoga Box to end the night. Just being outside and being at the beach, for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It started in 2020 as a one-time paddle out to honor George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1919,181,23,100,592,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-403514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-columns","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-people","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}