Surf's Up and Out

Carlsbad resident Bill Curci first started riding waves when he was five and "got into surfing" at 13. In the 44 years since, he's taken a 20-year break from hanging ten due to geography and not living near the ocean and, since returning, has rediscovered his affinity for the sport.

"I moved back to surf country and have been surfing pretty regularly the last ten years," Curci said. "I love to surf at Black's during the winter and I'll go up to Trestles during the summer. It's really about trying to find the best waves with the least crowd."

As far as experiencing homophobia within that crowd, Curci says it has been indirect. "I grew up surfing in Orange County in the '80s. It was both the time and the place and it was a lot more frequent that you would hear a lot of anti-gay slurs,"he explained. "Not because they thought they were gay, but because that was the way to put people down. I still sometimes see that, more so from younger guys. It's not so much with hate in their heart, it's more them joking around with their friends and saying, 'Oh that's so gay what you just did,' type of thing."

Curci learned about the organization when he watched the 2014 documentary "OUT in the Line-Up," which chronicled two gay surfers traveling the world to discover the taboo elements of being homosexual within the surf culture. "From the website, a bunch of guys created a Facebook group for kind of local, hard-core surfers," he said. "And that's all come about in the last few years. Before the movie, I don't know that I ever met another 'out' gay, male surfer in my life. To this day, most of the guys that I surf with are straight. It's a small group of people that I've known for years and I'm out to them. They know me and my partner and are very cool guys. I have a group of surf friends that are gay, but schedules don't always work out."

However. when schedules do coincide, Curci enjoys the brotherhood of being able to be himself. "It's just that same feeling of when you can just be completely yourself and not worry about anything," he said. "It's that sense of freedom and being with people who understand. It's been really great having the group and it's been a wonderful thing."

Look for other gay surfers worldwide at gaysurfers.net