Laru Beya empowers local youth & women to heal in water
Totally Ghoul
After taking the A train nearly to the end of the line, I knew I was approaching New York’s surf town on the Rockaway Peninsula (AKA The Rockaways) when I spied a man dressed as an honorable high court judge, complete with wig, black robe and gavel.
He lacked only one accessory: shoes. Though we were blocks away from the beach, he was barefoot. It warmed my heart to see this custom—one that is also respected in certain regions of my home state. If you can smell the ocean from where you stand, it’s time to let the dogs out. It doesn’t matter if your soles aren’t yet in contact with sand. It’s good for the feet to bop around on the pavement and earth.
I would go on to learn that the barefoot judge was judging the competitions for Totally Ghoul, Laru Beya’s costumed surfing event.
On Rockaway Beach, I was jovially greeted by Aydon Gabourel, founder of Laru Beya. He and the Laru Beya team were finishing up installing their tent and setting up their raffle (the prizes being one public session at Skudin Surf, the indoor wave pool at the American Dream Mall, or a two-night stay in an Offsite cabin).
To give them some space, I began to make my rounds to meet the assembled costumed characters and check out the view. Aydon didn’t expect a huge attendance for Totally Ghoul but cared more that the event served the community rather than rake in donations. Nevertheless, over 70 ghouls and groms (young surfers) had arrived at Rockaway Beach.
It was 10 a.m., and the waters were already full of surfers taking advantage of the only beach within New York City limits where it is legal to surf.
“Lots of close-outs today!” One contestant shouted to me from the water.
“Huh? What’s a close-out?” I hollered back. (I call myself a novice surfer, so I’m still wrapping my head around surf lingo).
“It’s when the wave breaks along the entire face all in one go. Oh! Like that!” He pointed just in time as a wall of water crashed in on itself. “It makes it really hard for a surfer to ride.”
Our attention was then called away as the emcee brandished a long blond wig and announced to any inquisitive minds, “I’m just Ken! I’m Ken-ough!” With a flick of his new hair, he herded beachgoers toward the tent to introduce that day’s competitors.
He knelt to greet a throng of aliens and announced to the audience, “Oh my God! Mars attacks! They’re taking over the surfing galaxy! Why don’t you show us your moves?” And with that, the aliens nodded their heads in sync and scurried away.
Next came Michael Myers, the legendary serial killer recently sprung from prison.
“You’re going to kill it out there!” the emcee cooed. “No pun intended! Mwahh! Well, show us your moves!”
Michael strutted toward the audience, thrusting his knife menacingly.
Just then, a child in formal wear caught the emcee’s attention. “We have someone very dapper here!”
He identified himself as a businessman. (Would businessboy be more accurate?)
“Finance?” The emcee questioned. “Are you a finance bro? Do you do a little crypto on the side?”
“Yes!” the business child affirmed. And with that, he spun on his heels toward the water.
And then, Spock informed the crowd that he would, “follow the primary directive of surfing,” in order to be victorious in the competition.
“But how do you plan on keeping those ears on?” the emcee asked.
“Hope and dreams,” Spock answered. (Spoiler alert: they stayed on the entire time).
As the heats began, the wind picked up and the skies grew cloudy. However, the atmosphere was very festive and warm—ideal for a journalist like me who’s just starting to get back into the swing of things. Everyone I had a conversation with—and I mean everyone—invited me to come surfing with them. I don’t say this to toot my impressive desirability. I believe that this community sincerely values extending open arms to all who are surf-curious.
“You get out here, and you smell the ocean, you’re on the beach— Listen! You should come out this summer.” Aydon interrupted his own sentence to extend yet another invitation to come surfing. When I say that folks on Rockaway are nothing but inviting, I mean it. “Don’t even tell me when you’re coming, just come out! Just pop up, come hang out. Definitely, come out and join us.”
Every weekend of every summer Laru Beya hosts surfing lessons for young surfers. Weekdays are generally reserved for lessons for older students.
But while summer is a popular time for lessons, when there’s snow in the water, that’s when you’ll find the beach full of local die-hards.
“Winter is the best time to surf! It’s hurricane season!” said Mara Lopez, who donned skeletal make-up and a colorful skeleton wetsuit. She called herself Skelly Slater in honor of professional surfer Kelly Slater.
Cristina Wright, a surf mentor for Laru Beya, agreed. “Fall and Winter are the best times to get into the water because we have more consistent swell and more exciting things going on. It really becomes super local, obviously, whenever the snow hits the ground, but it’s nice just being able to recognize people’s faces in the water. It just grows the community and makes the place safer, honestly.”
For most of the day on that beach in Queens, the wind went right through my flimsy jacket and numbed my hands, gripping my Canon that had been generously loaned by Superhero Clubhouse, with whom I volunteer.
The rules of the competitive heats were simple: the surfer who was able to ride the most waves within 15 minutes, would win a gift bag of gear from Patagonia, Sun Bum, Gerry Lopez or another sponsor. Needless to say, folks were driven to claim victory.
A butterfly desperately swam to shore in the middle of her heat to shed her drenched wings. Once she had reverted to caterpillar form, with antennae safely duct taped to her wetsuit’s hood, she returned to the sea. Presumably her mother lugged the fabric wings ashore, exclaiming to onlookers, “They weigh 100 pounds now that they’re wet!”
That wasn’t the only hazardous costume on the surf. Terumi Murao, one of Laru Beya’s surf instructors, had duct-taped her entire wetsuit with white tape to become a mummy. One of her co-mentors, Autumn Milton, delicately tried to avoid taping her hair to the costume.
“Lift your braid!” Autumn said.
“Ghmnhff!” Terumi could speak only in muffled groans.
After the finishing touches had been placed, Terumi attempted to squat and bend with major difficulty. She was so bound that was unable to bend her arms or legs, which, as one might expect, can be pretty useful in a surfing competition.
Terumi and Spock brainstormed a few strategies that would enable her to mount her surfboard. One idea would have her lift herself into a pike position and plop down onto the board seated.
I was amazed to watch her stand just 15 minutes later.
As the heats progressed, Aydon whizzed around welcoming family members, putting out fires over the phone, ensuring that everyone had gotten some pizza to eat. Meanwhile judges attempted to corral all the aliens into their appropriate heat. (It always seemed like one was missing at any given moment).
“If you’re lime green, you should probably grab your board and be in the water by now!”
One of the parents watching the groms said, “I wish they’d dress like this every day. They’re so much easier to spot!”
Though fluorescent, the groms continued to run up against surfers who would cheat them of their waves.
Using a blow horn, judges asked these surfers who were outside of the competition to “give our groms some room! Thank you!”
I caught up with a few of the alien groms, though it was difficult to wrangle their attention away from the water that left them mesmerized.
“The waves are pumping!” a grom named Wiles shouted over the wind.
“There’s a bunch of people, and they’re not very, um, contest-aware,” fellow grom Boaty told me after his heat. He’s been surfing for four years.
“Still fun! Still stoked to be here!” Wiles added. He’s been surfing for seven.
They explained to me that the aliens came from a faraway planet known as Long Beach on Long Island. They had met in one of Skudin Surf’s camps, and it was their parents who had pitched the idea of dressing as green extraterrestrials for the costume contest.
History of Surf in Rockaway
The earliest case of surfing at Rockaway dates to 1912 when Honolulu’s Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, toured the area after winning Gold at the Stockholm Olympic Games.
After that inciting event, there’s one report that Rockaway residents in the ‘40’s would rummage through dumpsters in search of old ironing boards to ride.
Moving into the ‘50’s, folks would come back from visiting Hawai’i or California with surfboards in tow. (Check out this interview to hear about Billy Sautner surfing Rockaway in the ‘60’s, taking “surfaris” with buddies in Long Island and New Jersey, and consequently losing teeth).
Beginning in the ’70’s local surfers suffered and were lost to compounding waves of the drug epidemic, intensified by racist public policies that divested from Rockaway’s Black community and enforced poverty. (For more, read Between the Ocean and the City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York).
As the decades went on, The New York Times reports that fewer locals were surfing Rockaway and that more young, wealthy, hipsters came from Brooklyn to surf. (Check out this article to learn about tensions between some local surfers and visitors from 2018).
After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Rockaway began to garner a lot of attention from housing developers. Aydon acknowledged that the influx of newcomers is good for local businesses and hopes that it will ease New York’s affordable housing crisis, though this does spur fears of gentrification.
And then, in the last 10 years, a steadily growing movement led by local surfers of color began—one that Laru Beya has sought to uplift.
“Now, you look out there, you see New York,” Aydon praised.
Laru Beya
In 2018, when his daughter, Adanya, declared that she wished to learn how to surf, Aydon was met with the hefty cost of surfing lessons. Upon realizing the cost-prohibitive barrier to entry, Aydon and his cousin founded Laru Beya with the mission to give Rockaway kids a chance to surf their hometown breaks and create a safe space for women.
Adanya and a group of eight or nine of her friends comprised Laru Beya’s first cohort. They were featured in Teen Vogue in 2021 and The New Yorker in 2022.
This Fall most of the cohort began their first semester at their respective universities.
“I cried every time another one of them hopped on a plane or in the car to go away,” Aydon said.
But Laru Beya did not crumble with the matriculation of its original crew because it has grown and adapted over the years to sustain itself.
Today, the nonprofit is proudly operated and managed by 85% women. Aydon described how Laru Beya has adopted a counselor-in-training program in order to mentor students to become instructors certified by the International Surfing Association (ISA).
“It just keeps going,” he said. “They go off to school and they come back. When they get into the program, they come back every summer. They get hooked.”
And while all who support Laru Beya have a passion for the sport and sea, Aydon actually sees surfing as only a stepping off point in terms of mentorship and career opportunities.
“Surfing is the intro,” he said. “Once they get in, you find out what they want to do, and we try to match them up with somebody who can help them navigate that.”
For instance, Farmata Dia joined Laru Beya as a mentee in 2018 when she was 14 years old. Today, she is a mentor, wins surf competitions (her latest took place in California) and models, like her surfing mentor Terumi.
Cristina, originally from South Carolina and now living in Brooklyn, is another one of Laru Beya’s surfing mentors. She has also volunteered as a graphic artist and supports Benny’s Club, which serves queer surfers and surfers of color by establishing safe spaces.
“It’s been really cool being here, building community and exposing this environment to kids who, honestly, live just blocks away but don’t have the equipment, the knowledge yet to feel safe in the water,” she said.
Outside of her time in these communities, she works at a local surf shop and Sarajo, a seller of antique textile and collectibles.
Four years ago, she met Aydon while taking photos on the beach, and he pitched her on Laru Beya. (It seems to be something of a habit for Aydon. Many of his connections were sparked by simply bumping into a stranger on the beach).
“I had taken one surf lesson from a friend,” Cristina said. “And I fell in love after that moment, and I’ve kind of been self taught since then.”
Cristina has surfed in South Carolina but calls surfing in Rockaway totally different.
“We’re one of the largest urban beaches in the United States, so the landscape is a little different. We have one of the most diversified lineups in all of the East Coast.
“Surf has always been here. I’ve just been able to join at the right time to feel comfortable here because there’s also people in the water who look like me. That may not have always been the case, but since the population of New York is growing, the population in the water is also going to grow with it.”
“The water here is just like New York City,” Dr. Kwame La Bassiere said. “You had bombing waves and then all of a sudden zwoopt! nothing! It’s just like New York. One day it’s all gr gr gr! And then the next day it’s like zwoopt! nothing!”
Laru Beya’s curriculum now features elements of surf therapy led by Kwame, Head Instructor for New York Surf School. Not only are students taught the mechanics of surfing, but they are taught about the emotional and mental effects of the practice.
In addition to this shift in curriculum, Laru Beya, in alliance with a coalition of partners and concerned citizens, is now mobilizing to support Senate Bill S2545A// Assembly Bill A4846, a bill to support water safety learning in schools. According to the USA Swimming Foundation, 70% of African American and 60% of Latine children cannot swim. And BIPOC children fatally drown at a disproportionately higher rate than white children.
“We are trying to get water safety taught in schools from K-12 in some capacity,” Aydon said. “Initially, the bill was for everybody to learn how to swim. (That’s) probably not realistic.”
Aydon said that in-class education would explain when it’s safe to enter bodies of water, signs of a rip tide, how to stay safe in a car and survival skills for “sunny-day floods,” or flooding that occurs under clear skies and is becoming all the more frequent due to climate change-induced sea level rise.
“These are things that the next generation is going to have to learn to deal with,” he said.
Even still, New York currently faces flooding issues. The Tri-State area received record rainfall last month when over a half foot of rain fell. JFK Airport, not far from Rockaway, received eight inches in 24 hours.
“That came out of nowhere,” Aydon said. “It just sat and poured and poured and poured. Before that, there were people who drowned inside of their basement apartments because the water came up so fast.”
New York residents can send their representative pre-filled messages of support from the Coalition using this link.
“This is home!” Aydon said with outstretched arms. “If we don’t do it, who else is going to do it?”
Laru Beya’s advocacy efforts are strengthened by consistent community love. The group has recently partnered with organizations, including Benny’s Club and Yeasty Boys—a femme-focused surf club.
And it makes sense because, after 45 years of living in New York, Aydon is a well-known community figure. Prior to becoming Laru Beya’s founder, he worked in the financial sector on Jersey City’s Grove Street and coached football in Rockaway for 20 years.
“That’s what a lot of people from the community know me for,” he said. “I would get off my job in Jersey, I lived in Brooklyn for a little while, would hop on the train, come out and go to football practice.
“So now people are looking at my (FaceBook) page, and they’re seeing surfing, and they’re going “What the—?’ But, you know, you have kids and this is what happens!”
When comparing his time in football with surfing, Aydon acknowledged that surfing is an individualistic activity.
“But it’s such a good community,” he said as his shoulders dropped and a relaxed expression came across his face. “There’s something very healing about the water while football is really aggressive. There’s something about being in the water.”
Which brings me back to Totally Ghoul. At the end of each heat, surfers breathlessly emerged from the water in soggy costumes, beaming smiles.
“The water is warmer than it is out here!”
They’d return to Laru Beya’s tent for a cup of cocoa and a slice of pizza while watching the swarm of aliens gallop and skip in the surf.
Looking ahead, in addition to winter surf gatherings, Laru Beya will host snowboarding and indoor and outdoor climbing events. Laru Beya accepts financial donations and gifts of lightly used wetsuits, boards and gear. They also seek mentors, photographers, surf instructors and water safety coaches every summer.
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