TRUN THE TIDE
It’s early evening in southern California. Ty Duckett, a stocky Philadelphia native, lies on his surfboard in the ocean. Another man, wearing a bucket hat, stands nearby: he’s chest-deep in the water and gesturing with his hands. Ty, who’s 35 years old, nods in agreement as the ocean pulses around him.
A wave begins to crest. Ty slowly paddles his way into it and presses his torso up, forming, for a brief moment, a hypotenuse triangle between his body, his outstretched arms, and the board. He firmly plants his right foot, as his back leg does a full 180 degree sweep to the front of the board. Only then is it clear that Ty, a black man on a beach that was once segregated, is surfing with a prosthetic leg.
The man in the bucket hat, now cheering at the top of his lungs, is David Malana, the founder of Color The Water: a Californian surf collective, made up entirely of people of colour, that sprang up during the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police officers.
“I guess you could say I’m the founder of this thing, but it’s everyone’s, man,” David says, his tone soft. “It’s everyone who brings what they are that makes this special. I’m just a vessel letting it move through me.”
A few hours earlier, I’m watching as the Color The Water crew ready their surfboards for the evening session. Everyone is hanging at the clubhouse (a makeshift surf spot, based out of an Airbnb property that David rents
