EP 39: Farmata Dia & Quest Marley - The Far Rockaways

0:03My name's Larry Stafford and you're listening to Hell or High Water, the Finistead podcast exploring the depths of our oceans and the resilience of the human spirit.

0:14welcome back to the podcast a show where we dive into the stories that shape our connection to the sea and the communities built around it for this next episode we're heading to the edge of new york city to a stretch of sand and surf that is rockaway beach a place where atlantic swells meet a rich evolving culture of identity resilience and creativity some of you may be familiar with the surfing scene across the pond, from its cold winters and snow-covered beaches, to the famed Quicksilver Pro that ran back in 2011. Maybe some of you caught the 2017 film we produced with Mikey De Temple, which took a look at the diverse and creative approach New York surfers take to scoring waves on the eastern seaboard.

0:56This next conversation we've long been meaning to have with two people who have been in our orbit and next to us in the line-up for a little while now. Farmat Adia and Quest Marley, two surfers, community builders and core members of the Larrabea Collective, a grassroots movement that's redefining what surf culture looks and feels like in New York. Together they've helped carve out a space for black and brown surfers to find belonging both in and out of the water, blending surf, art and activism into something that's uniquely their own. Before jumping in for a wave, we pitched up in the backyard of Faye's Surf Shop and Cafe run by local Drew, a hangout and a place to drop in and slow down to talk about the vibrant surf scene in East Rockaway.

1:40We explored how Farmatter, or Farmy, and Quest found their way into surfing on the city's edge, how Larrabea has revolved from a local gathering into a powerful cultural force, and what representation and identity means when you're paddling out in one of the world's most unexpected surf scenes. So without further ado, here's episode 39 of Hella High Water with Farmata Dia and Quest Mali, the Far Rockaways.

2:11Where are we guys? We're in Rockaway, Rockaway Beach, New York. Yeah, introduce yourselves. Hello, my name is Farmata. People call me Farmy. And I'm a surfer based out here and an organizer with La Rebella Collective. My name is Quest Solomon and I'm with Endless Horizon Retreats and I do retreats around the world. Okay, so Zane was just chatting outside about Nicaragua. You guys have been doing some stuff up and down there, huh? Yeah. So with Faze and my girlfriend and I, originally I started doing retreats because I would kind of put trips together and invite all my friends. and like sometimes like like sorry sometimes like plan out the trip in some type of way so i'd be like you know what let me like make a retreat out of this and do this so i bought land in nicaragua with my girlfriend like two years ago oh wow and um we have a bunch of friends that down there now that own hotels so i'm like before we build our house or our property why don't we team up with some locals and some people that own land out there and start retreats early and yeah last year was a complete success.

3:18You would think that getting like 10 people to come surf somewhere, there'll be some problems, but the whole time there really wasn't any problems and everyone was like stoked, everyone was psyching. And the best part was we got to hire locals for everything. That was our main focus. Like if we're going to make money in another country, make sure to give back to the locals. Wow. And where are people coming from to go on those trips? All over. Yeah, all over. A lot of people came from California. People came from New York. who else yeah that was mostly cali honestly a lot of people came from california okay yeah as if they don't have good enough surf themselves over there yeah selfish so selfish um and then you you guys are off today obviously yourself and zane are packing up and you're heading portugal for yeah i forget we yeah which alternative surf comp this this is uh gliding barnacles yeah okay no so excited i like that it's not a competition and that they're calling it like a surf festival there's a bunch of different parts they have shaping they have art photography and the surfing and i think it's just going to be different the last time i went to portugal was with finister when we went to madeira and so i think it'll be cool to get to compare like mainland to like an island of the same country yeah portugal is a bit of a european surfers paradise yeah there's a lot of surfers over there and a lot of traveling surfers yeah last time you were in ago you got one of the biggest waves of your life right yep almost died was that madeira that was madeira okay i know the photo it's that yeah it's a famous photo that's been i've had that photo was on the um it was in the window where uh main surfers union oh it's a big window that's crazy yeah make sure you get some people yeah hello sometimes people will walk by the finister stores like randomly and send me pictures and i'm like oh whoa they used that photo okay because you know We don't have a store out here, so we don't see what goes on behind the scenes really over there.

5:15That's right. Yeah. It was fun though, when you guys did the collab with Snow Peaks, there were some photos up in that store also. That's right. That's right. Good vibes. So, obviously, what are we, a block away from the beach here? Yeah. Yeah, one block away. A block away from the lake. Okay. There's no waves today. And Farmy, you grew up here in the Rockaways, right? Yeah, from preschool to now. It's kind of insane thinking about it sometimes. I was raised in Senegal for a few years and then came out here once it was time to start school. And I've literally just been living in Rockaway my entire life.

5:48It's feeling smaller each year. Are you Senegalese parents? Senegalese parents, Senegalese brothers. I'm the first generational, so first child that was born in America. And then my two younger siblings were born here also. And then we have two other siblings that were born back home in Senegal. So there's like a good mix of us, but it's cool because like, I guess like we all grow up similarly, obviously, because we have the same parents. But it's very different in like how we act, how we carry ourselves in the world, our values, even how we like treat our religion or other people. And so it's fun to see like the African-American kids and the African kids.

6:29And let's not forget, you're the first surfer of your family. First surfer, got a bunch of siblings to surf. My dad said he'd be down to try it only only in Senegal not out here Okay, yeah, my mom's not gonna do it and that's just the water temp. Yeah Okay, are you first surfer in the in the Solomon? Yeah, yeah, I'm the first surfer in the Solomon family My background my mom's Ethiopian and Italian and my dad's Colombian and Ecuadorian But I really just grew up with my mom's side of the family So I represent more like with the Ethiopian and Italian side So when my uncle always sees me, he's like, you're the first Ethiopian surfer.

7:06Like he always says this to his friends, which I don't know if it's true, but it's not true because I know other people. But to him, I'm the first Ethiopian surfer. So, yeah. There you go. I think I'm the first Stafford surfer. Nice. Maybe one of the few out of Cambridge where I was born. Nice. But, you know, it's... Senegal has a thriving surf scene. Yeah. Amazing. You guys were out there. I remember watching the film while we were in Madeira. And I was like, they literally just pulled up onto a random beach and just started surfing. And it was like straight barrels. Yeah, what do you have there?

7:41Is it Dakar? Dakar, yeah. That's where like most of the known spots are. But there's so much coast, so much like undiscovered lands in the villages and just like the more rural areas. So you have a lot of options. Like from my house, you can drive an hour, hour and a half to Dakar to go surf. or you can go to someone which is like maybe 30 to 45 minutes away usually doesn't get as big unless there's like a lot of swell in the water but it's like there's just surf everywhere yeah and the culture is growing so much every time i go there's more and more surfers they're so amazing i'll go there and i'm like man actually like i don't know how to surf these kids are like doing airs and they're half my height i'm just like this is kind of insane and they're i mean it Because it's sandbanks predominantly, right?

8:26There's a lot of sandbanks. There are a lot of, like, point breaks also. They have some rock breaks here and there. I've only really surfed the city and then the spots close to where my family's home is. But I want to, like, explore a lot more. I want to do, like, an endless summer Africa tour. Start in Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, and just kind of go down the coast. Just wrap the whole, yeah. That's the dream. That's the trip. That's the goal. background noise is fine background noise is fine I like the chime the chime is good this is good, this is ambience this is the new theme tune, Jingle it wouldn't be a New York podcast without a little bit of noise exactly sterile room sound proof I mean yeah I've surfed the likes of Morocco and stuff and I'd love to get down into the deep Sahara where it's you know wild and undiscovered i guess in parts for sure definitely quieter yeah yeah what's the scene like out here then so what obviously we're going to try getting the water afterwards but um i love this scene out here because it's super inclusive um i honestly didn't realize that in the majority of the world black people didn't really surf like that they do but like here in new york i was so used to seeing people of all races surfing that it was just kind of normalized in my head until I went to California and I was like oh the whole world isn't like this this is crazy so I think we're really blessed to be able to learn how to surf in New York our home our hometown and feel the love and never feel like the ocean wasn't for us because in moments in California for sure it was like okay it's pretty obvious like the rich people live by the water and in Rockaway all types of classes can live here because during the winter time not everyone wants to live here so it's like it always kind of evens it out the playing field of like keeping it inclusive for everyone to come come by and feel accepted and thanks to organizations that farming is part of like Laura Bea and other organizations um they're making it easier for people to be like hey I want to try surfing it's totally doable every year once a year I do um a surf event on June 19th and we teach over 50 people how to surf finister has sponsored it the last two years in a row so um this is the juneteenth event yeah so just getting 50 people to come out and learn how to surf is um always amazing and i and we always um try to get new yorkers especially like people that grew up out here that would have never tried surfing if it wasn't for this event and now i see some of them getting lessons by themselves and like just to you know start that in where we're from is it's Huge.

11:11Yeah. You mentioned Larabea Collective there. And I know there's been lots of great stuff and movements even prior to Larabea with Black Surfers Collective and Textured Waves. Tell me a little bit about Larabea and its kind of foundations and your involvement in it for me. Yeah, so Larabea is a 501c3 nonprofit based out here in Far Rockaway. And our mission is to empower the youth of New York City through surfing, environmental stewardship, and one-on-one mentorship. And so I'm part of the first graduating class, we'd call it. I started with the nonprofit when it was founded in 2018, and I think my experience is pretty similar to the experience of a lot of the kids right now, or even just volunteers and mentors where it's super healing and you can find a community that is as obsessed with surfing as you are that understands your experience also.

12:07So kind of just building off what Quest said, like New York City is a melting pot of like different people and stories and backgrounds. And so our water reflects that and our communities reflect that. And so there's a lot of like just love and understanding and support out here. And La Rebella is a big part of it. Just from starting to now, I've seen like the number of colored surfers, of black surfers, especially like double, triple, where like I'll see random surfers every day. And I'm just like, where did you come from? Like, I've never seen you in my life. And it's amazing. And I only noticed it because there was a time where, like, as Laura Bay was growing, like, we knew who were the black surfers because we were all together.

12:47Everyone knew each other, you know. And so it's like it's an organization, but it really is a family. We support each other in a lot more ways than I think certain people see. We have a lot of different programs. We partner with other organizations that do snowboarding so that our kids can get that experience. We do climbing. Right now we have a media intensive workshop where they get to do their own shooting in the water. They work with Zane, take out cameras, take out housing. They did the first one in the winter and were like freezing their butts off. But they pulled through. They edited all their photos, which they at our marina HQ late at night.

13:20And like we ended up having a gallery. They all sold photos. They also zines. And it was just like the best experience because it's like different paths that you could take in the surf industry. you get to experience a lot we get our kids isa certified and so it's just like it's just something that every single person deserves to have and something that we're super grateful to be able to experience out here and the same way that uh they pour into the community the community pours back into lara bea you know seriously that's beautiful yeah and so when did you first yeah When did you first kind of come to be with La Rubella or what was your first interaction with the surf yourself?

14:04So my first experience, I like was part of an internship out here. We were learning about environmental stewardship. And so they took us surfing one day for fun. And I loved it so much. I like went and posted about it on Snapchat. And my friend was like, hey, I surf with a bunch of black people. You want to come tomorrow? And that's where I got to meet all the La Rubella people. It wasn't La Rubella specifically. This was the summer right before it was brought up, created. And it was because it wasn't the safest environment where the surf lessons were being facilitated. And so La Arabella was specifically created for parents and kids and volunteers to all feel safe and happy and really enjoy the benefits of the water and the benefits of community.

14:47What was not safe about it? Yeah, the person that was running the lessons was like, he just made a lot of parents, especially like just the mothers that came through uncomfortable. He like was trying to just like take advantage of what he was doing to to make himself happier. He wasn't properly like using the funding that he was getting. He wasn't an actual certified 501c3 nonprofit. outfit and so it's like he kind of was just hurting the community that he says he was helping out and so like we had to leave because he ended up like cursing at a bunch of our kids a bunch of the parents dragging us on social media and it was bad and so even right now a lot of the kids and parents that we have to this day are coming from that organization and like sharing that trauma pretty much that he left so it's about having the right actors and stakeholders and people exactly for the right reasons it was almost like more of like a clout move versus actually trying to help the community yeah and that's exactly what it was but we're here in the future now and Laura Bea is the strong runner of when people talk about things of organizations like they're the people that they bring up they're like anytime I'm like oh I'm from New York people like oh you know Laura Bea and like that's exactly I'm sure what they want and they're doing it for all good reasons and I'm even seeing kids coming out that program.

16:16Farmy's been bringing him around to our break more where we surf. Ronald and just seeing him like progress is like so dope because a lot of times when we were kind of growing up and surfing we were the groms quote unquote and now that we're coming to that like next generation of groms under us we got to kind of pave the way for them and just like make them feel comfortable and I'm sure like yeah just him seeing us surf be good and he wants to get good it's just really dope to see like i love that shout out ronald yeah shout out ronald that's my little brother he just competed in his first ever competition we just came back from huntington he did a great job he had a lot of heat there was something there a couple weeks ago you were over there the um literally like yesterday i got back this morning yeah my sense of time is somewhat warm a great day in the stoke a great day yeah it was so much fun and it's like just to piggyback off of everything that you said like about lara bea again it's like i i call myself a result of all the effort and love and like support that's been poured into me because i wouldn't be who i am or where i am without my community and i'm just seeing that result like multiplying because now we have ronald's and now we have other kids that are working at surf schools or like we have the kid that's getting more into the filming and he'll cameras and gopros out and get footage and like everybody's just finding finding their own love for surfing in their own way and getting the support that they need to make it whatever they want it to be whether they want to be professional whether they want to be like a free soul surfer whether they want to be a surf model or like a filmer anybody can find their lane there's so many flavors to surf yes exactly people have a different relationship with it you know mine ebbs and flows like i find myself accidentally in the surf industry you know i didn't seek it out but me yeah i feel like surfing is meant to find you you know like at least for me it came in a really good part of my life like before surfing i was super like lost i was moving in and out of my mom's crib since i was 16 living on friends couches like i i feel like i lived the real like new york experience of like going into the jungle and trying to forge my way out of it in a way and Rockaway and surfing and all the people I met here really like opened up my perspective of kind of like the direction I wanted to take in my life which was traveling, surfing, getting better and before that I originally got into skate.

18:41I skated my whole life and then kind of stopped for that little crazy point of my life and then when I was kind of getting my life back together I would go to Chelsea Piers every day and I taught skateboarding camps so when I was teaching these kids how to skate, I was like relearning how to skate in my own way. And I never really saw how bull skating and surfing kind of translated to each other because I was from New York. I didn't, I, if you asked me about Kelly Slater six years ago, I would not know who that is. Like I didn't care about surfing. And then when I saw surfing and people like Larry Bertelman and like buttons and all these people doing these laybacks, I'm like, that's bull skating.

19:18Like what the hell and then I did deeper research and uh they're they're they're pretty much cousins at the end of the day so um yeah surfing I would say definitely saved my life in a way for sure because I was on a dark path for like back in the day just like figuring myself out as a young teen in New York yeah and now um yeah I'm going on like four trips this year to go surfing some of them are paid some of them are community stuff it's it's a blessing and I'll I'll never like leave something that showed me so it's such beautiful people and such beautiful communities around the world yeah well that's it isn't it like surfing skateboarding snowboarding yeah all those countercultures that are like that just have this they're very powerful sports and particularly in way of like the community and the culture that is around them right there's so many shared commonalities which is like life yeah you know progression yeah challenge you know the environment you're in this it's um they're really special sports to be a part of and like you like you said there's there's a really strong bond amongst the people who take part in it yeah and i feel like us being from new york city we're really lucky because when we go other places around the world nobody expects a new yorker to surf right so then off automatically like the defense system of like oh why are you here surfing here where are you from they're like oh you're from new york y 'all can surf and then like we get that with england yeah exactly england you can set it's like yeah we're in a little island surrounded surrounded by water and we get to like break the barrier almost of like they're just like automatically like the defensive barrier of like who are you guys it's like oh you're from new york i love new york and then like you know from there we take it on and being from new york you understand how to talk to people and all types of people because you speak to all different types of people every day of your life here so um yeah shout out surfing

21:20definitely my life and i'm sure farmy's life too in her way well i love you know i can say i just jumped on from manhattan essentially and within an hour find yourself at the beach and i imagine there's a lot of people in the city who don't even know that that journey exists they don't um it's you know i i've read about it i've watched it i know people who've done it for years and um it's yeah it definitely seems like that's a pilgrimage i've now taken but it's um yeah how how do you guys go about um opening that up to people who don't know surfing exists in you know cosmopolitan place like new york honestly i feel like nowadays social media is just a really powerful tool that anybody could use i've had like random people stop me and be like oh my god I love your tiktok and I'm just like oh my god you see my videos like do you know me and it's so random and so that's one way to do it but also just like talking about it and being open about it and just like sometimes you have to like or like people will see you with the board and they'll be like what are you doing with that like you're black you know how to swim you know how to go in the water it's just like yeah and you make it more of a fun thing for them because I've learned like a lot of people are like scared of the water or have like traumas with the water too and so it's just like you just gotta try it once if you don't like it it's not your thing that's okay or you could like watch it you can educate yourself on it talk to other people like volunteer with la rubea and just experience it from somebody else get that secondhand high of being in the water but that's like my main way of doing it i guess and i feel like just us like living is kind of like like us just existing is we wear this on our sleeve like this is actually what we do we surf whenever there's waves we do community events so there's like when people ask us about our lives i'm like yeah this is what i do and then a lot of people are like putting it on yeah no a lot of people are like especially in brooklyn when i'm hanging out they're like wait you surf and you surf with a bunch of people that look like just like us like especially in brooklyn like at my local dive bar i go to um for me i'm always uh vlogging so i feel like i've just started getting some type of recognition like on youtube where i'm just in the water and some random guys you can plug the vlog uh quest marley there you go go follow that go subscribe to that if you want to learn about new york surf culture and just meeting people in the water and being like oh when are you dropping your next video and i'm like oh you're watching that and like just even getting that reaction puts the battery i feel like in my back for sure to keep pushing it because it's something that's not really talked about and there's so many kids and so many people in new York that have unbelievable talent in whatever they choose to go in because if you're a kid growing up in New York you're already five ten years older than you actually are like seriously like just going through experiences here so and I see that in London yeah exactly so when you get like an outlet to express yourself in a positive way um yeah it becomes an addiction and that addiction you want to show other people that and then you guys can throw off and create lifelong memories together yeah and i know that both of you are probably somewhat like pretty influential bridge figures whether it's through your social media or whether it's just human interaction but yeah yeah that that that again that bridge between a city and a coastal lifestyle uh something urban and something so removed from it yeah with the ocean right this expansive body of water that you know isn't high rises yeah seriously um yeah and you know i i look forward to getting in the water and seeing what that community looks like yeah but it's um yeah how do you see the role you you both now play as surfers with influence perhaps responsibility um to hand that that well that generational hand-me-down now of surf and culture and being outdoors and camaraderie if you will yeah i think uh with me personally there's definitely a sense of responsibility just being a mentor with la rubea and being around our mit's our mentees in training they're getting a lot older now they're like charging bigger waves and so there's this level of like keeping them accountable keeping them safe but making sure they're still like having fun and getting to be kids while they're learning all of this but i'd say like i was talking about this recently i think like at the point where aren't we're at now not to speak for you but it's just like there's automatically a sense of responsibility because people will choose you and people like respect what you say and people want to hear what you have to say and so it's like you almost like have to pick your words wisely at time but be authentic with it and so i think like Like, telling people, like, yo, shortboarding is hard.

26:06It took me two years to duck dive. But at the same time, it's, like, the best experience ever. There's times where you feel uncomfortable in the water. There's a lot of times where you're the only in the water, the only black person, the only black woman, two black women in the water or two just women in the water. And so it's, like, it's not all easy. And you have to be completely honest so that people aren't, like, going into it, like, unexpected. but also just like being patient and showing people that like this can be so much more than you think this is actually really healing and you can completely change your life from this it doesn't have to be like just surfing too and I think that's a big thing to teach people like you can try this and you can see how we love it and then from there like you go out and you look for your surfing and you find that in the world whether that's like art or snowboarding or skateboarding or like whatever you choose to do because surfing is creative for us we're like drawing lines on the waves and we're like dancing on our boards and so you just got to find how you're able to be creative and really like embrace that and put your everything into it definitely um yeah I would say the way that I like to be an ambassador I guess to New York surfing.

27:18For instance, there's like a young man, Solomon, who I've seen come out here since he was like 14, 15. And he's been riding this foamy forever. And I'm just like, bruh, you want to, if you want to get to that next level, you got to take it to this board. And he just didn't really have the money to get or his parents did. And then I just gave him a board one day. And it's like little things like that growing up as a skateboarder in New York, when you don't have a board and it breaks, there's always an older dude that's like, oh, I got an old one. You can use this oh you you need trucks you need wheels use that and skateboarding's always had exactly it's always had the hand-me-down of we got to give back and i don't feel like surfing has a bunch of that there don't get me wrong there are people that do the hand-me-downs and stuff but not as much as skating and i think surfing's often the last thing to get out of those three sports we just said snowboarding skateboarding surfing still has a like a yeah i still did pay 400 for this board Yeah.

28:13And I think I know why it is because waves are finite. Yeah, exactly. So there's something around. Oh, we'll let that. Yeah, we'll wait. That's a big jet. That's a big jet blue. Welcome to Rockaway, guys, where you hear airplanes go over you every day. But to me, it's motivation because I hear that airplane and I'm like, damn, I need to be on one of those. For real. Right? You'd be surfing because JFK is right there, so they fly over the break. So we always see planes when we're surfing. and every time I see a plane I'm like damn I can't wait to be on one of those on a surf trip especially during the winter time when it's so cold but yeah back to what I was saying um just like throwing community events um and just telling all my friends and they're young any of my friends that have kids automatically I'm like free surf lesson when they turn three or four years old like and yeah I want to share the stoke of surfing with everyone like I feel like everyone should learn how to do it and i get you know certain people don't feel that way but i'm a skater and i'm from new york and i'm like when it came down to skating i never went to a skate park and felt like oh they don't want me here it was like oh bro little bro come here learn this try this someone tells you to try again or just sitting on the gate like yeah the whole skate park or just sitting on the gate and just being like kind of scared and then like one of the older guys just be like bro you're not gonna learn tricks sitting down and then it's just like little things like that where it's like it's a nut yeah yeah exactly and i've learned to take what i've the nurturing culture from skateboarding and try to bring it to surfing and um they are very similar but they're also very different so it matters who you get involved into surfing and kind of what you teach them and they will go on their own journeys and teach them in their own ways and it's like how whoever we learn from how to love the ocean how to be inclusive if we can teach multiple generations like this then in the long run a change will happen like for sure we spoke a bit there about longboarding shortboarding different craft perhaps and i i've read something recently or saw something you were talking about your um your your move from long to shortboards and you talked about again you just mentioned music quest but like you know longboarding is a slower song and shortboarding has a bit more pace to it yeah um yeah what's your and you sold a longboard recently you just got a brand new longboard it's a nice larabee color palette shout out lord boards my board sponsor yeah longboarding is like my comfort zone it's what i do if i just want to like chill or have fun not really take myself too serious i feel like when i shortboard it really changes things for me because i feel like you just have to be a lot more intentional when you're on of shortboard too especially like in a place like rockaway where we don't always have the best waves to shortboard and so it's like that and then like it's like getting messed up when you're duck diving like i feel like i've just been traumatized by duck diving around the world at this point it gets us all i guess that's all but it's like surfing and traveling the world with like quest and paul and other homies and like just having them push that shortboarding and be supportive I guess it's like how you guys describe the skate culture, but feeling that a lot more with shortboarding, because I think like you understand that struggle together.

31:30And so I enjoy shortboarding. I think it's really fun when there's waves. Do I do it that often? Honestly, no. I do it during hurricane season when I have to. Horses for courses. Yeah, you know, or like at a wave pool. But like longboarding and mid-length thing, I'm just like, this is vibes. On a mid-length, you could do anything you could do on a short board and on a long board on a mid-length. Like, each board had its own benefits. And, like, when I first started surfing, I just surfed every board I could. Like, I didn't have a single board that I didn't try at La Rubea. I tried all our donation boards, all our foamies.

32:05I tried friends' boards. Friends would give me boards, and I would, like, ride them down. And so it really helped me, like, learn about them, too, and just enjoy every board for what it is. Because those two boards are really the same. Seriously. Now with the CNC, you know. I feel like even this summer, which is, like, kind of rare for me, I've been working on, like, longboarding and mid-lengthing more and just seeing the beauty in that. Like, because before I was really on my skating stuff, like, oh, shortboard, that's what I want to do. But definitely just taking out bigger boards. Like Farmy said, like, every size board is a different craft, and if you learn how to surf all of them, you'll just be a better surfer.

32:43Yeah, much more rounded surfer. Yeah, exactly, a more rounded surfer. I think it keeps me, it keeps the stoke alive for me. Yeah, sure. Moving between stuff. When we were up the coast in Maine the other week, I jumped on a little, tiny little finned Tom Wegner thing. Nice. You know, and I'm six foot three and a bit. Yeah, that's insane. We were talking about our friend Matty Snelling a second ago. You know, I don't think he has had a set of fins in a board for 10 years. Well, I got to see him ride fins because he didn't have an option. And he was like, I do not like this. No, you figured it out.

33:18Loose by name, loose by nature. But yeah, I think it makes you a more rounded surfer. For sure. Nothing makes me laugh more than seeing a frustrated, middle-aged dude in the water on a small day riding a 5.7 Paisel. No, literally a Paisel. It's like, well, no wonder you're not getting any waves and you're a little bit hot tempered. And it's kind of added a little bit of shabazz to my surfing where people see me at a mid-length, they're like, oh, a quest on a mid-length. Oh, watch out. And it's just hilarious to me because I'm like, oh, that's to show I was so stubborn. Even on a one to two foot day, I'm taking the shortboard out, trying hopping as much as I can.

34:04And then I wrote the mid-length one day and I'm like, why have I been doing this to myself? I thought this. I think it's a different scene now where people can enter the water with a little bit more knowledge and awareness from people like yourselves about, hey, you'll probably do better on this. Let's just start you on this and we'll progress. When I first learned to surf, I bought a 6 '6 shortboard and I was like, I don't need this. That set me back years. Then I remember first surfing a fish and I was like, wow, if I'd have taken this thing five years back, maybe my surfing would have progressed.

34:41But a lot of times when people start surfing, they're like, no, I want to ride that board. And you're like, but you should try this one. And then the beautiful thing about that, the ocean will always teach them. They were never ready for that board. It's great. When I was working at a surf shop, that was always the experience. I think it'd just be like this little black girl. They walk in, they're like, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm like, if you buy that board, we're not going to refund you. You're going to have to keep it and sell it on Facebook market. promises is not what you want you should rent a board and try it out first you know sometimes like you gotta live and learn yeah one thing the ocean will do is destroy the ego yeah oh yeah it's like a therapy session you're like oh it really is when was that when was last time you had your ego checked um i'm trying to think a minute ago but i guess like i get it i get it every winter under the cliffs in St.

35:36Agnes. No, that's what I'm saying. And you go out and it just, you're not ready for it. I'm like, I've got 40 minutes to go for a surf before the next meeting. And I'm sat in this meeting like 40 minutes later with like water coming out of my nose. I just got absolute beating. I think it was last year during hurricane season. I just couldn't get out one day. And like that hasn't happened to me in so long where I was just like, oh, but I kind of liked it. I was like, yeah, you're not there. Don't be comfortable. Like you got to figure it out. So then I just like tried three times. My rule is try seven times.

36:04If I don't get out the seventh time, then I'm just chilling for a bit. Like, I try seven times, like, as much as I can do it. Okay. And I made it out on the fifth. Zane was there, actually. And he was like, what? And it was even worse because Zane's looking at me filming like, what do you mean you couldn't get out there? I'm like, I'm trying, bro. I'm going to get out there. And then, yeah, I eventually made it. And, yeah, I definitely had, like, I got slapped real quick, slapped up. And then I made it out. And then it was a happy story at the end. Thank God. Zane is sat watching us having this conversation now, bopping around with a camera.

36:38Shout out Zane, vast videographer, photographer in Rockaway, for sure. Shoots all of our stuff, most of our content. If you see us surfing, farming surfing, any brand stuff, we're hitting up Zane. Zane is the person to hit up, for sure. Shout out Zane. He's been with us since we started surfing, and we've been with him since he started videography. So, like, we've grown, like, all together. And it's just been such a beautiful experience. Because usually it's, like, somebody who's been shooting surfing forever or somebody who's been surfing forever. And, like, I feel like we've all been able to just, like, see ourselves grow.

37:13Like, him as a videographer, us as surfers, and just have that, like, family dynamic. You must have archives and archives of footage. Yeah, he's going to be able to make the book about us. He's got all the different looks. Yeah, literally. The question I went through some footage earlier this year from like four years ago. Yeah. Wow. And it's like insane. Yeah, just the progression on all levels, the filming, the editing. Zane's like, why wasn't that edited like this? So Zane, you've been on a journey as a filmmaker. Because filming surf and whether you're in the water or on the beach is a challenge.

37:49It is subject to the environment, right? Yeah. We're going to give Zane a mic for him real quick. Zane. Yeah. Zane. Absolutely. Zane is family. Zane, tell us a bit about what it's been like shooting this really cool kind of corner of surf. Oh, it's like the greatest privilege I could ask for. You know, I've been surfing now for 15 years. And I think the surf world that I saw was not one that I was like super happy with, you know. And then I came to Rockaway and like found, you know, my crew. and it's been like a chance to see what the world could look like i think uh and and then and then not only what it could look like but like i feel like we've we've like grown like so much too as everyone kind of like like i know that like yeah this is important too for like sending a message but like as well it's important to like become a better surfer like we've been able to like review clips and look at stuff and go over see what could we do better what we do you know and that's been great um but it's been incredible best hype man like when you're serving you don't need a hype man no no no you see them surfing like you'll do a turn and he'll be like how did you land that and then you're like thanks zane um but yeah yeah no i couldn't ask for anything more this is like an incredible gift and i hope that we can just do it for the rest of our lives you know and i know we will like nothing will stop us yeah yeah and you've been running lara Larubea's new media program.

39:20Yeah, I don't want to take the mic too long. Hey, no, you stay on the mic. This is good. Round table. But yeah, so we've been doing the Larubea Media Program. It's been with the help mainly of Christina. Farmy has been our subject a ton. Autumn, Aiden, who runs the program. And I kind of started it, I guess, but like realistically, it was like the drive of like all the youth at Larubea. I remember we were out for the last Beia Benny Bash was last summer. and one of our like youth came up to me and was like saw my water housing and was like oh like I want to do that and I was like oh okay all right um let's make it happen so I went to Aiden basically right after I was like dude I didn't know that they wanted to learn photography um and so fast forward a couple months and it's fall and we found ourselves doing this program you know basically using like all my old gear some of my like new gear having people donate people donated gear from the community, old water housings, old cameras, laptops, like we really kind of put some stuff together.

40:24And then we got the zine out, we got some printout and did next do two exhibitions. And that process has been incredible, like eye opening to a degree that I couldn't even have expected. I think the way that we we formulated the program was not that I'm the one coming in saying like, I know how to do this. I don't believe in education like that. but like we did it in this way where it was more like we're all kind of like co-investigating what media looks like what surf media looks like when it's like decolonial or when it's you know non-racist and when it challenges like our kind of like sexist or like capitalist ideals right which often does get captured in media you know it's been very one-sided and one way forever yeah super super and so we basically i didn't i don't know necessarily what the future looks like alone but I know that together we kind of have an idea of what it could be.

41:17And so, yeah, we've been like just kind of exploring this together. And I'll teach them how a camera works and tricks for a water housing. But like ultimately, like it's up to the youth and to me and to like all the subjects. Like we're responsible for what we're going to see. And yeah, and it's been amazing. This year's program, I can't wait to show the stuff that we got. We also started doing video with the help of KEH and with the help of... Photodom. Photodom. Yeah, Photodom is an amazing black-owned film shop in Brooklyn. They also helped us, they got us some film cameras, some in-water film cameras.

41:58And man, like this year is gonna be... I mean last year was amazing, this year... Where do we see that stuff? When does that stuff get published? I think we're going to, by December, we'll have the zine out. And then we're also looking for two exhibition spaces at the moment. Yeah, so it should be by December. We just got like a bunch of new gear in. So like we've pushed basically like the shooting sessions. So we're going to be in the water a lot more because there's so much more to do. But oh man, it's been the best. Yeah, Rockaway is abundance. This place is beautiful. Rockaway is abundance.