[music playing]
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): I'm skeptical,
but, apparently, Black folks have been
surfing for at least 50 years.
That's got to count for something.
So I'm getting wet-suited up and letting Lou Harris teach
me how to surf in Queens.
Now, this is the surfboard here, 9 foot.
Now, it's not dirty.
This is the wax.
This is going to help you stick to it.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): He's using a lot of words
for one little surfboard.
I hope he knows I'm not going to remember any of this.
We're going to teach you the pop-up.
OK.
The pop-up is a push-up, and then you jump to your feet.
Push-up?
Push-up, I know.
But I do push-ups with my knees.
And you could do it with your knees.
Like they taught me in high school.
Caramel, come here.
Show her what a perfect pop-up is, OK?
Let's do it.
All right, young lady.
LOU HARRIS: Paddle, paddle, Paddle, pop up.
OK, did you see at one point, all of her body
was in the air? - Yes.
You show me.
I need somebody who remembers the Clinton
administration to show me-- - I'm 50--
--how to do this.
--with two bad knees.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): OK, so maybe he really
does know what he's doing.
But I can't understand why.
Who would do this on purpose?
There was a fire in Coney Island.
And it was started by-- at the time, he was 13 years old,
and he was Marcell Dockery.
And he lit a mattress on fire in the basement.
And, coincidentally, the police officer
who died from that fire, he was from Rockaway.
Like, we had his funeral here.
And when the police asked the kid why he did it,
he said he was bored.
I didn't mean for the whole fire
to come, just for a second just because I was bored.
Like, I just wanted something to do instead
of sitting in the hallway.
LOU HARRIS: So that-- like, that really tripped me out.
And I was thinking, if this kid had an activity,
then maybe this officer would be alive.
So I reached out to the BSA in California
and told them about the tragedy.
And that's how it started, just like that.
What made you pick surfing as the thing
that the little Black children should be doing?
Because they don't do it here.
Not just Black kids, this is open to white kids,
Asian, Muslim, gay, straight.
I don't care who you are.
If your parents can't afford surf lessons,
I'll teach you for free.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): Aw, look
at Lou running his own United Nations of surfing.
This is a hate crime.
So very simple, we're going to do this, 1, 2, 3, push-up.
Push-up.
This knee's going to come first.
Here.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, now bring that left.
Yeah, uh-huh, right there.
And I don't care how your feet look.
- I'm going to drown. - But-- no, no, no.
You're fine.
Look, it's low tide.
It's, like, 2 foot of water right there.
We're good money.
We're good. I got you.
We're good.
DULC SLOAN: You can die in 3 inches of water.
LOU HARRIS: No, look, I'm 50.
I've been swimming for 45 years.
I got you. This is my backyard.
I got you. - I got to this.
I'll take a bullet for you today.
I got you. - You understand, Caramel.
Let's go.
You don't need to take a bullet.
You need to take the ocean.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): Like most Black people in the '70s,
Lou's parents didn't know how to swim.
But they made sure that he and his twin brother
could and got the boys swimming lessons at an early age.
Didn't they see the movie Jaws?
We have this segment on the show
called We Don't Do That because there's
a lot of stuff we don't do.
But I think we don't know sometimes why we don't do it.
A lot of Black people since the segregation of pools
didn't have the same opportunity as white kids.
Yet people think Black people are scared of water.
We're not scared of water.
Well, we're scared of water because we can't swim.
Yeah, and we can't swim because we
didn't have the same opportunities, exactly.
When those pools were open for white people,
we weren't allowed.
That's one thing about the white people that live here.
They never bothered me, never said anything derogatory,
nasty about me surfing.
It's my Black brothers and sisters.
They're the ones that, yo, Black people don't surf, man.
Black people don't surf.
What you doing with that surfboard?
Listen, I was a Maroon 5 fan.
And we had to figure out how to listen to that.
And Black people accepted them.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): This man really
believes that I can do this.
And I'm pretty sure I'm going to prove him wrong.
Have you seen the ocean?
Do you see these waves?
When I get in the water, the goal is to not meet Jesus.
Maybe if I learn how to surf, then I
can, like, float out to a man who owns a yacht maybe.
[sighs] All right, let's do this.
I'm going to have the kids go out first, OK?
But they know what they're doing.
Don't say because they're kids, I'm supposed to feel better.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): Turns out there's money out here
for the young, Black surfers.
Lou has sponsors like Vans, Red Bull, and the Black
Surfing Association.
I need to be better at this pop-up.
Red Bull will call me say, Lou, we got $8,000 to blow.
Go find a surf shop here.
They can't drink it, right?
No, no.
Red Bull bought us $8,000 worth of surfboards for the kids.
OK, I thought you had $8,000 worth of Red Bull.
And I was like, that sounds like a great night in
college, yes.
But a 12-year-old with Red Bull,
oh, that'll stunt your growth.
I don't know that.
Don't sue me, Red Bull.
I'm just saying, I don't think we can give-- you can't give
energy drinks to children.
DULC SLOAN (VOICEOVER): OK, moment of truth,
if I don't make it, tell my mom I love her.
[music playing]
[shouts]
I didn't die!
Oh, man, I didn't shoot over rebound.
Yay!
I learned how to surf.
All right, let's go.
You get stuck in a wetsuit.
Did you know that?
Listen, you never know, like, when you're out here
on your own, just working, like, doing this thing just
by yourself, you never know what
you can achieve with just a few lessons
and absolutely no help at all.
It's like-- sorry, can you back up just a little bit?
Perfect, thank you.
So, like, when no one ever helps you,
like, when you've done everything on your own
and just really worked hard, like, wow.
[music playing]