OnTap Magazine

Free Surfer, an original, digital content series featuring South African surfers Cass Collier and Khanyisa Mngqibisa, is now available on YouTube. The second local production from Corona Studios, Free Surfer deals with challenging stigmas of belonging, including defying prejudices based on race and gender, in finding freedom in the ocean. “I’ve spent my entire life in the ocean and that’s where I find my freedom. Once you experience that first wave it changes everything. I think the ocean is all about healing – and there’s no greater feeling of freedom than this. Everyone has a place in the ocean,” said Cass Collier, the world’s first black, big-wave surfing champion. Master of riding the barrel, winner of the Reef ISA Big Wave Championship in 1999 and one of the top surf coaches in the world, today surfers come from around the world to be taught by Collier while he also runs a surf school out of Muizenberg, from where he teaches children from disadvantaged communities how to surf. “My father Ahmed Collier was the first black surfer to go to all the “white” Cape Town beaches and take on the apartheid government,” adds Collier. “Often, we would go to the beach to surf and leave in a police van, but he realised the freedom that surfing would give me. It did, and it still does.” The second episode of Free Surfer recognizes the internationally qualified lifeguard and surfing coach, Khanyisa Mngqibisa, who grew up in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, in a single parent household. She fell in love with swimming aged 12, got into lifesaving in high school and started surfing at 21. “One of my favourite highlights from my passion for the ocean is seeing more black people taking part in a sport they may once have thought was not for them. When the community sees a surfer who is black and a girl, coming from the same, disadvantaged community as they are, the perception changes that surfing is for only white or rich people,” says Mngqibisa, whose dream is to start a young, black girls surfing program. “In our community we face a lot of challenges – GBV, poverty, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy. When the youth I train surf with their peers it gives them a sense of belonging, self-confidence and purpose. I want my community to feel motivated and encouraged to free themselves from the negative and go to any beach and enjoy nature just like I do. When I started surfing, with the support if my mother, I changed. I wasn’t the same Khanyisa as before.” The release of Free Surfer comes on the 28th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy on Freedom Day. Melanie Nicholson, Corona SA Marketing Manager says: “Free Surfer is about two homegrown heroes who motivate people, especially their communities, through their deep connection to the ocean. We’re proud to present a short format series that represents the triumph of the human spirit by becoming their best selves in the ocean, outdoors, in nature.” Corona Studios has committed to four locally produced short format digital content series and shows this year that explore the outdoors, and Free Surfer follows Between San & Insanity which was released last month. Free Surfer (two episodes of three minutes duration each) is now showing on YouTube (Cass Collier and Khanyisa Mngqibisa). ‘Free surfer’ launches on freedom day, featuring internationally renowned surfers, Cass Collier and Khanyisa Mngqibisa, in a body of work that challenges their place in a world they initially did not belong in. FINDING FREEDOM IN THE OCEAN WHEN I’M SURFING, I’M FREE Khanyisa Mngqibisa / Internationally qualified lifeguard & surf coach - Khanyisa Mngqibisa THE OCEAN IS FREEDOM Cass Collier / World big Wave Surf Champion - Cass Collier ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2022 | 13