This week, a group of surfers will hit the beach in Florian\u00f3polis, Brazil, for what\u2019s known amongst participants as \u201cgay surf camp.\u201d This year\u2019s retreat may be the most important yet\u2014and the reason has little to do with the swells. “Now that we\u2019re facing huge setbacks in LGBT rights both here in Brazil and in the U.S.A., I think events like ours will be even more relevant and important to our community,” says Marta Dalla Chiesa, a South Brazil native. With her partner Lesley Cushing, Dalla Chiesa co-owns Brazil Ecojourneys, a week-long experience for people of all genders and skill levels in a welcoming and diverse atmosphere. \u201cDemonstrations and protests are important,\u201d she says, \u201cbut being good to yourself and finding community can also be a powerful form of activism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brazil Ecojourneys did not begin as an LGBTQ travel company. The pair were less interested in sharing what the southeast coast of Brazil had to offer: colonial history, abundant seafood, unusual wildlife, and, of course, surfing. That changed when Thomas Castets of gaysurfers.net, the LGBTQ surfing community site, contacted them. In shooting the gay surf documentary, Out in the Line-up<\/em>, Castets wanted to secure some interviews in Brazil. \u201cWe were impressed with the diversity of things (Brazil Ecojourneys)\u00a0offered,\u201d he says, \u201cand, of course, the surfing opportunities.\u201d Dalla Chiesa and Cushing saw the importance of the project and, after some strategic planning, Brazil Ecojourneys hosted their first Gay Surf Brazil retreat in October 2013, and Out in the Line-up<\/em> was released the following February. \u201cSurf is a very nonstereotypical sport for gays,\u201d Dalla Chiesa explains. \u201cEven I was surprised that a social website with thousands of gay surfers existed. We knew we wanted to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n I came to athletics late in life, and it was soccer\u2014a categorically land-based sport\u2014that lured me away from my desk and onto the pitch. I\u2019ll admit it: when first invited to a Gay Surf Brazil retreat, I balked. Motorcycling was the closest thing to surfing I\u2019d ever done, and that\u2019s not very close at all. Also, there was the issue of beachwear. Like pretty much every other masculine-of-center queer woman I know, I suffer a full-blown gender breakdown in the swimsuit aisle. However, I try to say \u2018yes\u2019 to adventure, and besides, surfers of all genders wear wetsuits, so last year I traveled to Florian\u00f3polis with a half a dozen other would-be surfers.<\/p>\n Caitlin Gulliford, 30, is a software developer from Florida who splits her time between the United Kingdom\u00a0and the United States.\u00a0She came to the retreat with only one teenage surfing experience under her belt. \u201cI was embarrassed as some local guys from my high school were there\u00a0and they laughed a lot at us trying and failing,\u201d she said. For her, fitting in to the \u201cbro\u201d culture of the sport was stressful enough to keep her out of the waves into adulthood, but she also had reservations about the retreat itself. \u201cI guess that going into it I was also nervous that, not only was I not a surfer, but also not entirely queer enough to fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n Gay Surf Brazil is explicitly queer, but in the estimation of its hosts, that includes allies. To Dalla Chiesa and Cushing, the goal is inclusion, and they work to attain a gender balance. \u201cOur aim is to be a camp the welcomes all of the community, but if we have an overwhelming majority of men, women might not feel so welcome,\u201d say Dalla Chiesa. \u201cI believe a mixed group is more relaxed and friendly to all.\u201d The same goes for the staff. \u201cAs in any of our tours, we source partners that are welcoming, and we make sure the surf school has at least one female instructor, which is not very common here.\u201d<\/p>\n The opening days of the retreat were spent acclimatizing in airy bungalows across from the sugar sands of Praia Mole in Florian\u00f3polis, the notably gay-friendly capitol of Santa Catarina state. We were an international crew with novices and a few returning surfers. Included in the latter group was a 40-year old Argentinian lawyer who, each year since 2014, has loaded his surfboards into his truck and made the drive north. Gabriel, who prefers to give only his first name, loves to surf,\u00a0but hasn\u2019t always felt comfortable being out. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s really nice to participate because you\u2019re on safe ground,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can be open about being gay, and the straight people there are somehow related to someone LGBT or they are gay-friendly, so that\u2019s cool. At non-gay surf camps, that\u2019s not always the case. Some people may not feel comfortable around gay people\u2014whether they disclose it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n In Argentina, Brazil, and other places around the world, the LGBTQ rights movement is still fledgling and the stakes for being out remain high. With Brexit in the United Kingdom followed by Trump\u2019s election in the United States, the political landscapes of two comparatively progressive regions seems to be shifting\u2014a phenomenon Gulliford has witnessed firsthand. \u201cIt has definitely been a trying year for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI found the U.S. election particularly hard, given the misogynistic and homophobic rhetoric. I\u2019m a survivor of workplace sexual assault and have struggled with feeling comfortable in my body since I was attacked. It felt like it was destroying what little ground I had to heal myself.\u201d For her, the surf retreat was an unexpected antidote. \u201cI realized that I am in control of my body\u2014not the board, not the ocean, and not anyone else,\u201d she says. \u201cSo while surfing is quite chaotic, it made me feel whole and comfortable in myself, the most comfortable since I was assaulted.\u201d<\/p>\n For Gabriel, it\u2019s all about community. \u201cMeeting others with your same hobbies and likes makes you feel good and accompanied, like you\u2019re not the only gay who likes a certain thing,\u201d he says, hinting also at his own challenges with being out. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to be more visible when you are with your group.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t end up being very good at surfing and I found wearing a wet suit about as comfortable as being publicly naked, yet somehow my Gay Surf Brazil experience left me with the same feelings as my new friends. In 2003, professional surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm in a shark attack. It didn\u2019t stop her\u2014she returned to the sport and continued to win. \u201cMy passion for surfing was more than my fear of sharks,\u201d she told reporters. That analogy works for what it\u2019s like to be queer in the world these days, but maybe not as resonant for me as this comment from the inimitable Audre Lorde: \u201cCaring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0 This week, a group of surfers will hit the beach in Florian\u00f3polis, Brazil, for what\u2019s known amongst participants as \u201cgay surf camp.\u201d This year\u2019s retreat may be the most important yet\u2014and the reason has little to do with the swells. “Now that we\u2019re facing huge setbacks in LGBT rights both here in Brazil and in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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