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.
