15 minute read
minutes to Pinecrest Lake
CLIMBING TIPS
By Matt Johanson
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Ascending Cathedral Peak in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows thrilled us. Atop the granite gem, a godly view of the mountainous horizon rewarded my buddy and me. The challenges we overcame to see it made the victory sweeter. That joyful moment made me a lifelong climber. Here are some tips I have learned along the way.
1SAFETY FIRST. Secure your harness properly. Check your partner’s knot and your own. Wear a helmet. These measures go a long way toward ensuring safety.
2USE INDOOR GYMS TO CLIMB
MORE AND BETTER. Nothing beats climbing outdoors, but indoor gyms allow year-round and nighttime activity.
3PICK A GOOD PARTNER WHO
YOU KNOW AND TRUST. But it’s also good to climb with new people who can help you improve and discover new destinations.
4“FIVE FUN” IS THE BEST ABILITY LEVEL. Climbing doesn’t have to be difficult to enjoy. I got started on moderate classics and still enjoy those the most. Let Alex Honnold
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5GENERAL FITNESS WILL HELP YOU ENJOY CLIMBING WHEN
YOU CAN GO. Running, cycling and other aerobic exercise will keep you trim, which definitely helps. Pull ups are the simplest way to improve your ability.
6TIME YOUR OUTINGS TO
AVOID CROWDS. Try to go midweek or in the shoulder seasons. If you have to go on prime days, arrive early.
7IF YOU THINK CLIMBING DELIVERS THRILLS, TRY
LEADING. Not everyone is suited for this, and one should follow many outdoor climbs first. But when you’re ready, leading a challenging route successfully can make you feel like a climbing rock star.
8BUY GOOD GEAR, EVEN
THOUGH IT’S EXPENSIVE. Cams cost up to $100 each but are worth every cent when you’re high above your anchor and need to jam one into a crack quickly. Don’t cheap out on the rope, either.
9IF YOU LEAD AND PROTECT A CLIMB WELL, THEN ACCEPT FALLING AS PART OF THE SPORT.
To improve, a climber needs to push limits and risk falling. A climber on a top rope should have nothing to fear.
(Left) The author climbs a pitch in Pinnacles National Park. (Above) Cathedral Peak: Yosemite’s Cathedral Peak boasts both moderate climbing and spectacular scenery.
Lead climbers must accept greater risk, but should still fall harmlessly if they prepare and react correctly.
10BE CONSIDERATE. Keep your noise down, pick up your trash and help those in need. It also helps to climb popular routes quickly so others can enjoy the route after you’re done.
Cathedral Peak keeps calling me back. Following my 50th birthday, I teamed up with my cousin to climb it for the seventh time. After the pandemic restricted Yosemite all summer, we enjoyed a glorious autumn day. I’m looking forward to many more years on the rocks, and every time I see Cathedral Peak, I’m grateful to the majestic mountain for teaching me how to climb and how good climbing feels.
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Diversifying the water and the international surf narrative through coaching
By Krista Houghton
Surfing requires grit. Surfing while female and black requires next level grit. Meet Rhonda Harper, the grittiest of them all. Founder and director of Black Girls Surf, Harper knows how to make dreams come true.
Growing up in Kansas in the 1970s, Harper experienced firsthand segregation, discrimination, sexism, and racial injustice. She lived it – every day. This included walking over two miles to the segregated pool to swim. This lack of access to quality pools and lessons left many young black kids unable to swim. Learning to swim was not made a priority for many black children, so the thought of wanting to be a surfer for a young black female was definitely unusual and not part of a normal conversation. Still, Harper dreamed of surfing. She collected surf magazines like a squirrel collects nuts. She was so hooked that at seven years old she started a paper route just to fund her magazine habit. Harper, or “Coach Rho,” is now a long way from Kansas. Her parents moved to San Jose, CA when she was ten years old. Her first visit to the beach was Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. She was immediately drawn to the cliffs and crashing waves. California beaches were segregated up until the 1960s and Santa Cruz still holds a reputation for localism in and out of the water. She recalls experiencing ongoing prejudice during her visits to the beaches in Santa Cruz. One such incident resulted in a racial slur written in
surf wax on her car windshield. “As a teenager I was angry about that. I wasn’t going to allow people to treat me a certain way,” Harper recalls, and she wasn’t scared to fight back. In fact, her nickname back then was “Rocky” because she liked to fight and got in her fair share of trouble. She now recalls with a bit of pride that she bullied the bullies. “I couldn’t stand seeing someone pick on the littles.” Perhaps it was in her DNA to stand up for the underdog. Regardless of young Harper’s intentions, her mom did not condone the behavior and warned her daughter, “You’re either going to end up in jail or end up dead unless you change.” And soon thereafter, put 15-yearold Harper on a plane to Hawaii to live with her sister who was studying at Chaminade University on the North Shore of Oahu. Her parents hoped that being close to the ocean would mellow her out. “I brought over a suitcase full of surf magazines, hundreds of them. I would watch all the surf movies growing up, like Beach Blanket Bingo and just dream of that life,” she says. Harper recalls a nearby bench in Oahu that still exists today. “I would sit on that bench and watch the waves and water for hours. I felt like my Hawaiian dreams had come true; it was a pinnacle moment for me.” It was 1984, and at the time Harper was the only female African American to attend Waialua High. There, she took a course in Hawaiian History. “I was shocked to learn that it was the Hawaiians that invented surfing. I went home and took every photo of white surfers off my wall.” Being in Hawaii with so many brown surfers gave Harper a sense of belonging. “I would watch people of color surfing and think, if they can do it, I can do it.” So, she taught herself how to surf on the North Shore
THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: KHADJOU SAMBE AT LONG BEACH, CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA (RHONDA HARPER); IT’S ALWAYS A GOOD TIME WITH COACH RHO (KHADJOU SAMBE PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE BACKGROUND).
of Oahu, the most coveted, gnarly, and revered area for surfers in the world. “I love the hard fall,” she says, with a slight chuckle in her voice. “When I’m under water getting hammered, I’m smiling, I’m loving it.” She credits her toughness to growing up in segregated Kansas, the daughter of activist parents. Her mother worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and her dad for the unemployment office, helping black vets. Her father would always say, “If they don’t have a job for you, you create it.” Harper praises her parents for giving her the tools and strength it took to create Black Girls Surf in 2014.
At 53, Harper can now look back and recount a few things that led to her current role. But more than anything else, it was the magazines that planted the seed to start Black Girls Surf. “I never saw people of color in the magazines, and I wanted to change that.” In 2012, Harper was the Managing Editor of the Black Sports Network and was covering the Vans Triple Crown on the North Shore. She recalls saying into the microphone, “Thank you Black Sports Network for supporting this event …” and thinking, “Hey, there are no black surfers in the competition.“ That is when she enrolled in International Surfing Association (ISA) judging courses and became an ISA competition judge. She says, “I wanted to learn what the judges were looking for and why certain surfers got more points than others. I wanted to figure out why more black surfers were not in the ISA.” Fast forward to 2014 when Harper says she “got her
TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: KHADJOU SAMBE WITH PARA-OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST TRAINING IN MUIZENBERG (RHONDA HARPER); GOOD FRIENDS AND GOOD VIBES, COACH YANI TROUT OF NEXGEN SURF (PROVIDED). SECOND ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: BLACK GIRLS SURF MINIS, CROSSROADS TOWNSHIP IN CAPE TOWN ENROLLED 60 GIRLS IN ONE DAY (RHONDA HARPER); BLACK GIRLS SURF LAUNCH IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (RHONDA HARPER).
HELP US BUILD THE NEW TUNNEL CREEK SINGLETRACK TRAIL
This new trail will be adjacent to the current road. It will separate hikers from bikers and provide a safer way to finish the world-famous Flume Trail. Thanks to a matching gi from the Spaht family, every dollar donated will be matched up to $25,000. Visit: tahoefund.org/tunnelcreek
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: SAMBE INSTRUCTING THE BGS MINIS ON SURFBOARD BASICS (RHONDA HARPER); COACH RHO’S DAY OFF — WHEN TRAVELING SHE IS KNOWN TO VISIT LIGHTHOUSES AS THEY REMIND HER OF HOME (PROVIDED); LENDING A HELPING HAND IS A WAY OF LIFE (RHONDA HARPER). hands dirty.” She got together with a fellow female black surfer and organized a competition to showcase black surf talent in Africa, calling it “Black Girls Surf.” When asked why she picked Africa she doesn’t mince words: “Where else could I find more than one black female surfer?” She does have a point. In my 26 years of surfing in America, I have only surfed with black women on a handful of occasions. It took years to plan the competition, and their efforts were hampered by pushback from the very industry that is now embracing change. Then, the 2016 travel ban hit and put more roadblocks in their way. In 2017, it was on, but only one female was on the roster. She went to the ISA and the World Surf League (WSL) hoping to find female surfers of color, but there were none. So that’s when she started Black Girls Surf camps, so she could find, enroll, and coach black female surfers for the WSL. Living true to her father’s words, “If you can’t find it, create it.” I asked Harper if she felt the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year shed more light on her efforts. “I’ll take whatever I can get. It’s been a long time coming and it’s finally here.” She is right. Big companies and organizations like Hurley and the WSL are now sponsoring Black Girls Surf. This support saves Harper from using her Coast Guard pension to pay for contest fees and travel. More than that, it is a sign of change, progression, and empowerment in the lineup. Harper plans to have twelve camps up and running in West Africa and California. Most recently she was focused on 2021 Olympic hopeful Kadjou Sambe (featured on our cover). Harper discovered Sambe in 2016 during an online search for female black surfers and the two clicked. They spent this past year training in the cold waters of Santa Cruz but were unsuccessful in making the team. Her goal in four years is the Olympics and to have her female black athletes on the team. I pried a little deeper and asked what really gives her joy and keeps her pushing. She shared that recently a South African female prison asked to enroll some inmates as part of a new prison reform program. Harper shared that both her parents worked on prison reform issues and that she is deeply moved by the potential to help these women through surfing. Can you imagine the NBA or NFL without black athletes? Of course not. So why is surfing different? It’s all about the lack of access. For too long, black kids have been denied access to pools and denied access to beaches. They have also been denied representation in surfing magazines that traditionally only featured white guys and white girls in bikinis. Luckily, things are starting to change. From blonde babes to dark skinned beauties, we all should be able to share the ocean and thrive. A true evolution of surfing has begun.
The Seas Are Rising And So Are We
The Surfrider Foundation is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches, for all people, through a powerful activist network.
Learn more at surfrider.org
PADDLING THE SLOUGH
Tuning in to tides and wind
By Krista Houghton
My love affair with stand up paddle boarding (SUP) began some years ago. From my very first SUP adventure at Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe, I was hooked. I could see all the way to the bottom of the lake and moving over crystal blue water was like a dream.
To date, I have now been to numerous rivers, lakes and ocean adventures on an SUP, even a waterfall. I have been visited by dolphins, turtles, seals, rainbow trout and even a Hawaiian owl. So, when my sister and group of friends wanted to SUP Moss Landing, I was eager to join. Moss Landing is home to Elkhorn Slough, one of the top ten wildlife viewing destinations in North America. This slough is home to a variety of birds and seals, and happens to be one of the best places to view sea otters. On a slightly chilly morning in May, we met up at The Kayak Connection where they outfitted some friends in boats. Great folks with a great launch. Within minutes of setting off, we were greeted by a friendly pack of harbor seals as a flock of pelicans soared overhead. The water was so clear I could see the sand dotted with seaweed on the bottom. Gently being pushed by a breeze from behind, we glided easily into the estuary. I knew the ease of paddling at the beginning can be deceptive. The tide was going low (a negative 1.0) that afternoon and the month of May usually ushers in the predictable afternoon winds. At that same moment I also recalled a few of the not so easy adventures I have had on an SUP. One was a supposed “easy” paddle across Hanalei Bay in Kauai, which turned into a 30-mph headwind and 5-foot waves. Another was a family SUP paddle with my sister and her son at Donner Lake in the Sierra. The wind turned on like a switch during our return which forced us to sit down and paddle like hell to get home. This made for an eyeopening adventure with my nephew about water safety and always having a plan B in case Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. With these SUP misadventures in mind, I casually reminded the group that we should start our way back to the launch. As if on cue, right then the wind hit. Thank goodness we had an outgoing tide to help us! A few of us had to sit down and connect the SUP leash to a kayak for additional paddle power. All in all, we made it back. But it was a reminder that if you want to SUP Elkhorn Slough, check the tides and wind and always have a plan B. Dave Grigsby, co-owner of Kayak Connection puts it this way: “We’ve stopped renting SUPs on the Slough, because too many people were getting stuck trying to make it back against a headwind and the incoming tide. We also found that SUPs are more disturbing to wildlife, probably because how much taller a paddler appears on an SUP. I’m not saying paddling an SUP at the Slough is always a bad idea, just that for us the problems outweighed the benefits and for that reason we encourage kayaking at the Slough instead of using SUPs.” Even though I loved SUPing in Elkhorn Slough, this paddle was a good reminder to always check conditions with a local shop before heading out. Flat water paddling has a low barrier to entry for newbies, but be aware conditions can change on a dime.
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Elkhorn Slough
Moss Landing 831.724.5692
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