It is a common perception all over the world that black people do not swim, and least of all in the sea. It is referenced in jokes of comedians such as Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy and South Africa’s own Pure Monate Show. We are prone to the same belief that black people don’t swim, don’t like the sea and definitely do not surf.
Kwezi Qika is an 18 year old black boy from Ocean View township in the Western Cape. Six years ago he couldn’t swim. Then he became South Africa’s junior surfing champion, part of the South African national surfing team, and the first black South African to win our country’s most prestigious surfing tournament. Kwezi Qika is lovingly referred to as, “The Tiger Woods of Surfing.”
Surfing in South Africa developed as a whites only sport. It started in Durban in the late 1930s and early 1940s. And now, in 2006 Kwezi is the first black Springbok surfer ever! He says it is his proudest achievement yet.
At the world surfing championships in California in 2006, Kwezi represented his country as a substitute and came in third. He says, “the girls were like, what you’re from Africa? You know how to surf? Oh my gosh!”
Director : Lucilla Blankenberg