12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story (2012)

Nick Gabaldon was the first African American surfer. He learned to surf at an informally segregated beach called "The Inkwell" in Santa Monica in the 1940s and regularly paddled twelve miles north to surf Malibu, one of California's best waves. In doing so, Gabaldon defied conventions in an America that had institutionally prevented many blacks from accessing the ocean (and swimming pools) through a variety of latently racist legislation encouraged by Jim Crow laws, which weren't formally dismantled until 1965 when Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act. But that's just context. Forget the racial boundaries he collapsed by simply standing on a surfboard. Instead, ponder the stroke-after-shoulder-burning-stroke that a 12-mile open ocean paddle demands. Gabaldon pursued his passion for surfing to an extent most would never consider, which stands alone as an impressive feat, magnified further by his tragic, yet poignant conclusion. On June 5, 1951, Nick Gabaldon caught his last wave. During an eight-foot south swell, Gabaldon lost control of his board and struck a piling beneath the Malibu Pier. His board washed up on the beach shortly after. Three days later, lifeguards recovered his body and the small community of (white) surfers who had come to accept and respect Nick mourned. Eerily, just six days before he passed away, Gabaldon, who was enrolled at Santa Monica City College, submitted a poem entitled "Lost Lives" to the school's literary magazine. The poem praised the power of the sea and foreshadowed the events of June 5th. Nick wrote: The sea vindictive, with waves so high, For me to battle and still they die... Scores and scores have fallen prey, To the salt of animosity, And many more will victims be, Of the capricious, vindictive sea.