Making Girl Waves

Farhana Huq

Chief Brown Girl Surfer and Founder of Brown Girl Surf 

Farhana Huq, founder of Brown Girl Surf, first stood on a surfboard at the late age of 26. She didn’t realize this moment would change her life. Farhana fell head over heels in love with the sport which would lead her to start Brown Girl Surf, a unique project that synthesizes her journey to go pro with surfing with a broader journey of finding and supporting the first female surfers around the world. Before this journey, Farhana already had quite a few adventures to talk about. She’s done everything from creating educational soap operas to helping low-income immigrant women start their own businesses in America, to traveling the world to find other female surfers. She began volunteering when she was 14, and eventually worked on issues of homelessness and housing, dance arts programs for youth and anti-war activism for Congo.

In her early 20s, she founded C.E.O. Women, a non-profit dedicated to helping low-income immigrant women become entrepreneurs and ran the organization for 11 years. This award-winning community leader is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year National Finalist and an Ashoka Fellow.

Farhana is active in many parts of her life aside from surfing. She loves to dance and is trained in the North Indian classical and Tahitian Ori traditions. She is currently working on exploring the intersection of her classical Indian dance training with long board style surfing and hopes one day to surf competitively. Farhana also has a natural wanderlust and has traveled to almost 40 countries. Her travels, commitment to the empowerment of women and girls and her love for surf, dance and the planet inspired the vision for Brown Girl Surf.  When she isn’t traveling the world, she resides in Oakland, California, and enjoys surfing all types of waves on California’s Northern and Central coasts. 

“I'm most proud of having started and ran a successful non-profit organization (C.E.O. Women) that helped so many immigrant and refugee women on a path to economic self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship,” offers Farhana. “As far as surfing, I am also most proud of the day I surfed the Bukit Peninsula in Bali on a day when it was hollow and barreling.  I was the only female out in the line-up and made three out of my five drops.  It was completely terrifying but exhilarating at the same time.  I was so wired from that experience that I did not sleep for a full day and did not surf for 3!  After that experience, I felt like I could take on anything.”

But there are things that weigh heavily on Farhana’s mind. The equal distribution of resources and wealth is an important topic of conversation for her.  She wants to find a way to flatten things out much more, and ensure everyone had equal access to clean drinking water, food and shelter. 

But as with any influential person, she draws influences from a variety of sources. “Anyone from Laird Hamilton, the courageous big wave surfer and pioneer of tow-in surfing, to the refugee and immigrant women entrepreneurs I worked with over the past decade at C.E.O. Women.  Each one of them faces tremendous obstacles and challenges - situations that most people would have a very hard time dealing with -- and they somehow overcome their fears and persevere.  In the case of Laird, it is facing, head on, the sheer power of Mother Nature and in doing so, coming to terms with his own mortality and facing death.  In the case of women entrepreneurs, it is facing gender, racial, social and economic obstacles as an everyday challenge of living.  These examples couldn't be any more opposite from one another yet to me; they share a lot of similar characteristics in how they handle them,” adds Farhana. 

Although she is now about smoothly gliding along the top of a cresting wave, don’t think her land skills are lacking.  This lady was the first South Asian girl member of the U.S. National Karate Team. So watch out, this lady has drive, moves on sea and land and is just about ready to give the world another look at the ever changing landscape of Farhana Huq.

http://browngirlsurf.com/