Paddle Honors 1st Black Surfer, a Samohi Grad

A commemorative paddle honoring Nick Gabaldon—a Santa Monica High School graduate believed to be the first documented black surfer—was held this morning in the waters of the former Ink Well.

When Gabaldon grew up in the 1940s, the 200-foot stretch of beach where Pico Boulevard meets the ocean—behind where Shutters and Casa Del Mar stand today—was the only Westside location where people of color could reportedly congregate.

Nike hosted this morning's paddle in conjunction with its premier presentation of a new documentary about Gabaldon's life, 12 Miles North.

The story is that Gabaldon taught himself to surf at the Ink Well after one day asking a lifeguard to borrow his board. He got good and wanted to test his mettle against the best. Malibu was the center of surfing, but as a black man, he couldn't enter the beach there.

As Nike tells it, one day, when the surf got big, he decided to paddle the 12 miles and enter the lineup. His surfing stood out, and in the 1940’s, he became friends with local legends such as Ricky Grigg, Matt Kivlin, Mickey Munoz, Bob Simmons and Buzzy Trent.

At the end of each surf session, Gabaldon would paddle the 12 miles to exit the beach at the Ink Well in Santa Monica.

"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,"  Zach Weisberg, Editor-in-Chief of TheInertia.com, wrote today in a blog on the Huffington Post. "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.

Gabaldon's passion for surfing was met with a tragic end in June of 1951 at the age of 24, when he died after striking a piling beneath the Malibu Pier. His body was found three days later.

His life's story is being retold in a new documentary film, 12 Miles North, that will premier Thursday night in Hollywood.

"We can't pretend to know what Nick was thinking as he glided towards the Malibu Pier on his final wave. And we'll never know the exact relationship between Nick's poem and his end. But we can salute the depth of his passion and its cultural import," Weisberg wrote.

12 Miles North will premier at 7 p.m. at The Montalban at 1615 Vine St. The film was produced by Richard Yelland.

Six days before his death,  Gabaldo submitted a poem to the literary magazine at Santa Monica College, where he was enrolled:

The capricious ocean so very strong,

Robust, powerful, can I be wrong?

Pounding, beating upon its cousin shore,

Comes it clapping, rapping with a mighty roar.

The sea vindictive, with waves so high,

For me to battle and still they die.

Many has taken to it’s bowels below,

Its laurels to unwary men.

With riches taken from ships gone by,

Its wet song reaches to the sky,

To claim its fallen man made birds,

And plunge them into depths below,

With a nauseous surge.

Scores and scores have fallen prey,

To the salt of animosity,

And many more will victims be,

Of the capricious, vindictive sea.

O, avaricious ocean so strong,

Robust, powerful, I’m not wrong.

Pounding, beating upon your cousin shore.

Come you clapping, rapping with a mighty roar.