When he first joined the Croyde “grom pack” – the gang of young surfers whose passion is catching waves off the seaside village on the north Devon coast – Siyanda Hewitt was taken aback that he was the only black person out there. “It was a bit of a shock, to be honest,” he said. “It was weird not to see any black surfers.”
Five years on Siyanda, 16, has become the first UK-based black professional junior surfer. On Wednesday, two days after finishing his GCSEs, he is flying out of Heathrow at the start of a world tour during which he will train in South Africa, the Maldives and California, in preparation for next year’s contest circuit.
He hopes eventually to compete on the adult circuit, perhaps even make it to the Olympics – and inspire others to give surfing a go. “I’d like to see more, a lot more black surfers try surfing,” he said. “Access can be a problem. It can be expensive to buy a board or get surf lessons. It’s a shame.”
Siyanda grew up in South Africa, where his father, activist and surfer Tom Hewitt was the founder of Surfers Not Street Children, which worked with homeless street children and introduced them to the sport. “I was five or six when I started,” said Siyanda. “All the kids who were surfing were black. I got hooked on it.”
When Tom Hewitt and Siyanda’s mum, Bulelwa, re-located to the UK, they set up in north Devon because of its world-class breaks. “It wasn’t quite the same here,” said Siyanda. “In Durban I was mostly surfing with black surfers. Here there were hardly any. A few in the summer, none in the winter, none in competitions.”
While Siyanda’s surfing improved dramatically, combining school work at Braunton Academy with his passion for the sport was a challenge. “It could be difficult to juggle surfing and school, especially in the winter. I’d be doing my studies and see great waves but have only 30 minutes of light left. That was annoying. In summer it was fine. You can study, surf and still have time to study afterwards.”
Now standing at 6ft 2ins he has become known as a fine “power surfer” able to put in dramatic carving turns, throwing off huge spray and, unusually for a surfer with a larger frame, has a great “air game” – his ability to get skip clear of the waves.
Siyanda’s skill, and story, made him a name in British “free surfing” (non-competition surfing), but he is keen to become a contest surfer. He has now been sponsored by a range of surf and beach clothing brands – plus a Devon wellbeing centre – to train overseas for a year.
Asked why he wanted to compete when good money was to be made out of free surfing by producing content for online channels, Siyanda said: “It’s wanting to win, being hungry to win. When you win it feels good and that’s pretty addictive.”
Tom Hewitt said since the Black Lives Matter movement, surfing across the world had been thinking hard about its image. “The sport has had to look at itself and its lack of diversity. The blond, blue-eyed male surfer image sold T-shirts over the years but there has been a lot of introspection.”
As well as looking forward to training on some of the world’s great beaches, Siyanda is keen to return to a contest first staged last year called A Great Day In The Stoke at Huntington Beach in California, billed as the “the largest gathering of black surfers in history”. Siyanda said: “Most contests are dominated by white surfers. That one gives black surfers a chance.”
When he’s not training, Siyanda will have to find time to study as he taking two A-levels – geography and sociology. He will also be acting as an ambassador for Surfers Not Street Children and The Wave, the inland surfing centre near Bristol.
Despite it all, he says he does not feel under pressure to be a spokesperson for black surfers. “I wouldn’t say it’s pressure but if other black people see me and think, oh, there are black surfers and are encouraged, that would be good.”
