Paddle For Peace & Hydro-Motion Watersports team up to bring wakeboarding to communities of color.

Attendees enjoying a ride of the tube.

Wakeboarding and watersports have historically been white dominated sports, with a barrier to entry typically requiring ownership of a watersport boat or connections to families that own one. As such it has been uncommon for wakeboarding to be available to communities of color. When one is part of a marginalized community, active discrimination can keep such privileged luxuries as boating and watersports out of reach.

Enter two So-Cal orginiaztions that felt a need to bridge this divide. Nonprofit organization Paddle for Peace, which organizes and provides water based activities for communities of color in the Southern California region, and Hydro-Motion Watersports, a company that provides wakeboarding, waterskiing and tubing lessons and charters to the San Diego area. Each entity specializes in their own avenue of watersports, Paddle for Peace most actively engages in surfing by organizing surfing lessons and events to So-Cals communities of color. Hydro-Motion Watersports offers access to watersports that pertain around powerboating, such as wakeboarding, waterskiing and tubing.

Both organizations came together during the summer of 2022 with a Mission Bay Beach Party that offered music, beach volleyball, paddle boarding, wakeboarding and tubing to San Diego’s Black and Brown communities, free of charge. This event was a smashing success with full attendance of over 60 people, many whom had never been on a boat before and some of whom had never swam in salt water. It is a powerful indictment of American racial inequality that despite growing up mere miles from the Pacific Ocean many attendees had never even swam in it. Several people spoke of their personal experiences growing up in racially redlined areas of San Diego County, describing a lack off access to educational, financial and recreational opportunities. “When you are just trying to get by day to day, the idea of going to the beach doesn’t even cross your mind,” said one attendee, speaking of their experience growing up in National City.

With so many people providing testimonies to how much they enjoyed themselves at the summer event, Paddle for Peace & Hydro-Motion Watersports decided to engage as official partners and are in active discussions to plan another event in late Spring or early Summer. Stay tuned for more information regarding ongoing events!