Lizelle Jackson is a passionate outdoor enthusiast, world traveler, and self proclaimed “sweets snob.” She is Co-Founder of Color the Water; a community for BIPOC to reclaim space in the ocean through joyful, defiant anti-racist surf lessons, celebrations, education, and media.
Lasso sat down with Lizelle in the mountains of Topanga, where she finds peace in hiking and mountain biking to learn from her and her journey.
That surfing is a lifelong journey! It's not something that you are going to pick up right away, and that's ok. You also don’t have to get sucked into the performance standards of the prevalent surf culture. Surfing is whatever it is to you. You can do it in your way, however feels the most joyful for you. Don't let anyone tell you the way you surf is wrong, find your own unique style.
Find community, if you can. It’s real that there’s safety in numbers, especially for women, as we tend to be more vulnerable out there.
Surround yourself with people that will support you and cheer you on. It's helpful to have people around you that already know how to surf (if possible), so they can help you navigate how to be safe in the water and help you understand that no one deserves to be yelled at in the water for making mistakes as a learner. That part of dominate surf culture has got to stop.
Say something! How many times have you witnessed a fight in the water or seen someone getting absolutely berated and no one says anything?
Speaking for myself, I've found it hurts the most knowing that so many people around you, willingly choose to stay silent in the moment even though they are fully aware that what is happening is wrong. I can easily write off whomever it is that is yelling and screaming as someone that's got their own problems they need to deal with. But all this people staring ahead in silence? I remember those faces.
And to clarify, I'm speaking to the white, cis, hetero men out there. You are the ones with the power to call out your peers in the water and actually be heard. Your silence is validation and empowers them to continue. Instead of paddling up to victim after the fact and saying "ah, that dudes an asshole", how about you say it the moment? What if you were to use your privilege for good, instead of being so terrified to lose your status in the lineup?.
I tell myself, “You belong here no matter how you’re surfing.” Nobody should be looking at you a certain way or making comments about moves you did or didn’t do, because you’re out here enjoying the waves you want to and the way you’re capable of doing so in that moment.
By trying to step away from that prevalent surf culture, and just surf for me is really helping me with that radical acceptance. Understanding that everyone is on their own journey and people got their own problems in life, really just let that be them, and let me do me.
I worked as an active travel guide for 9 years guiding cycling and hiking tours, but because it was work, I didn't always enjoy the cycling. It wasn’t until COVID when I was able to reclaim this relationship with cycling and mountain biking as something joyful.
Biking in the mountains has now become the place where I’m just being me. I’m having fun going at my own pace and there’s no outside pressure to ride a certain way or climb all the biggest hills. Being up here is really where I’m able to find that peace, think, let go and do what I want to do.
I love that I'm back working again as a travel guide. Visiting other countries, speaking different languages and experiencing different cultures allows me to tap into different parts of myself. Who I am in Belize is a completely different person than who I am in California, and I like that.
Being in California, it's easy to get pigeonholed into one little box, so going back out and exploring again has opened me up to new experiences and different ways of thinking and living.
Lizelle Jackson on instagram @zizzy3 Color the Water on instagram @colorthewater._
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