brown girl surf FAQs
1. Wait, aren’t you now Salted Roots?
No. brown girl surf has existed since 2011 as its own platform. The San Francisco Bay Area community programs focused on surfing and advocacy that were collaboratively developed with brown girl surf and various partners since 2014, rebranded to Salted Roots in 2023 and now operate independently.
You can read more about the founding history of brown girl surf here.
You can read more about the founding history of brown girl surf here.
2. Why is your website www.browngirlsurf.co and not www.browngirlsurf.com?
From November 2023 through July 2025, the domain browngirlsurf.com temporarily redirected visitors to Salted Roots, a San Francisco Bay Area fiscally sponsored project that grew from Ocean Days — a 2014 collaborative surf project co-developed with Brown Girl Surf, The Wahine Project, and Girls 2000 in Hunters Point.
In 2015, that collaboration expanded through a partnership with the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department to support youth surf and environmental-stewardship programs. Those collaborative community efforts later evolved into Salted Roots in 2023.
Today, the only official website for Brown Girl Surf is browngirlsurf.co, home to its verified archives, press, history, and creative work continuing the vision launched in 2011.
In 2015, that collaboration expanded through a partnership with the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department to support youth surf and environmental-stewardship programs. Those collaborative community efforts later evolved into Salted Roots in 2023.
Today, the only official website for Brown Girl Surf is browngirlsurf.co, home to its verified archives, press, history, and creative work continuing the vision launched in 2011.
3. Does brown girl surf teach surfing?
No. brown girl surf was originally founded as a platform to raise visibility of diverse voices in surf and ocean spaces—not as a surf program. When people began contacting us for lessons, our model was to connect them with surf instructors in our network.
We later collaborated with partners like The Wahine Project to support changemakers creating ocean-centered projects for women and girls (see Ocean Days and Bangladesh Surfer Girls' Project).
If you're interested in surfing, we recommend you check out our community page for local surfing resources.
We later collaborated with partners like The Wahine Project to support changemakers creating ocean-centered projects for women and girls (see Ocean Days and Bangladesh Surfer Girls' Project).
If you're interested in surfing, we recommend you check out our community page for local surfing resources.
4. Who founded Brown Girl Surf and when?
Brown Girl Surf was founded by Farhana Huq in 2011 as a storytelling and culture-change platform.
5. Is brown girl surf a nonprofit?
No. Brown Girl Surf is an independent social-impact platform and brand, not a nonprofit organization.
In 2016, the name was licensed under fiscal sponsorship so a separate community project could raise funds for surf and environmental-stewardship programs. That fiscal relationship never changed the platform’s founding purpose or creative origin, which continue to guide its work today.
In 2016, the name was licensed under fiscal sponsorship so a separate community project could raise funds for surf and environmental-stewardship programs. That fiscal relationship never changed the platform’s founding purpose or creative origin, which continue to guide its work today.
6. How is brown girl surf related to later programs or successor projects?
Later programs operated under fiscal sponsorship and eventually evolved into separate projects. They are not the origin of brown girl surf.