The original program. Community surf and skate rooted in the legacy of Inkwell Beach at Santa Monica. Twenty years before Dakar 2026 — this is where it started.
Founded by Dr. Rhonda R. Harper in Los Angeles. Community surf and skate rooted in the historical legacy of the Ink Well at Santa Monica Beach. The foundation of the entire Inkwell ecosystem — two decades before Dakar 2026.
Inkwell Surf & Sk8 Club is the original. Everything in the Inkwell ecosystem — the Lifestyle Brand (2007), Black Girls Surf (2014), Africa Surf International (2014) — grew from the community work Dr. Rhonda R. Harper began in Los Angeles in 2004.
ISC was built around a simple, powerful truth: Black people belong in the ocean. At the beach. On the wave. On the ramp. The Ink Well was taken. ISC takes it back — every session, every season, every year.
The same gold that connects the Inkwell Lifestyle Brand to ASI to BGS to the Xataxely Surf Club in N'Gor Village traces back to this program. The sun that shines over Dakar shone over Santa Monica first.
Accessible surf instruction for Black youth and families in Los Angeles. Building cultural connection to the ocean through skill development, history, and community. No experience required — the ocean is for everyone.
Skateboarding as culture, sport, and community. The same values as surf — balance, discipline, community — on concrete. The ISC sk8 program connects two disciplines through one cultural lens.
Annual community event in Los Angeles celebrating Black surf culture. Surf sessions, cultural programming, and the reclamation of space at the shoreline. Open to all — every year, without fail.
Dedicated beach programming for Black girls and women. Surf, culture, community, sisterhood. The direct cultural predecessor to Black Girls Surf's competitive development program.
The Ink Well was a stretch of Santa Monica Beach — one of the few spaces where Black Angelenos could gather near the ocean during segregation. ISC was founded to honor that history and build from it.
During the era of segregated beaches in Los Angeles, Black families gathered at a section of Santa Monica Beach that became known as the Ink Well. One of the few coastal spaces accessible to the Black community — a place of joy, resistance, and belonging beside the ocean.
Dr. Harper and BGS installed a commemorative plaque at Santa Monica Beach honoring the history of the Ink Well — a deliberate act of historical reclamation ensuring the story is not erased from the shoreline.
ISC was founded as a direct act of cultural reclamation — building a surf and skate community for Black youth in Los Angeles rooted in the history of Black access to the ocean. Every session continues what the Ink Well represented.
The work that started at Inkwell Beach in 2004 is the same work happening at N'Gor Village, Dakar today. The geography changes. The mission doesn't. Black people belong in the ocean — on every coastline, on every continent.
The founding program. Community surf and skate in Los Angeles. The root of everything — the gold starts here.
The wearable heritage — Afro-coastal identity from Santa Monica to N'Gor Village. The commercial layer that sustains the mission.
inkwelllifestyle.comAfrica Surf International and Black Girls Surf — both founded from ISC's foundation, both carrying the gold thread to the African continent.
africasurfinternational.comCommunity surf and skate in Los Angeles — open to all. Reach out to ISC to connect with programs, events, and the community at the shoreline.
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