Surfers hold ‘paddle out’ in La Jolla to protest immigration actions, ICE killings

A group of surfers held a paddle out Sunday morning — an action typically reserved for mourning the death of a beloved community member — to protest the Trump administration’s weaponization of immigration agencies.

Dozens of surfers gathered at La Jolla Shores on Sunday for the event, “Let’s Get Salty – Time to Melt the ICE,” which was organized by a collective called San Diego Salty, with the stated goal of bringing awareness to arrests, deportations, forced disappearances, and deaths at the hands of Immigration Customs and Enforcement and other border agencies.

“This is about showing up together, sparking conversation, and building clear bridges to action – while reminding one another that we are not alone and that solidarity is stronger when we move as ONE,” their Instagram page said.

The paddle out ceremony emerged from Hawaiian surf culture. Surfers paddle out, as the name suggests, to an agreed-upon destination, then form a circle and join hands, which represents how the ocean brings people together. Sometimes they toss flowers or scatter ashes; other times they simply hold hands for a moment of silence.

Often, they are done to memorialize a beloved community member. Sometimes, however, paddle outs are used as a form of protest. For example, a paddle out was done in San Clemente last October to call attention to radioactive waste stored at San Onofre.

And sometimes, they’re also intended to lead by example.

“There’s something called social proof that I’ve heard about, like the more you make protest visible the easier it is for other people to have the courage to take action,” said one of the organizers, who only wanted to be identified as Kristen.

“Wee support justice for immigrants. We don’t like what we’re seeing — the kidnappings in our community — and we wanted to mobilize people to take action in the surf community.”

She said that they were originally inspired by Paddle for Peace, which was created to mourn George Floyd in 2020. She reached out to some surfers, connected with a group she found called Santa Cruz Salty, and went from there.

She added that their mission is clear.

“I want to give people ways to take action and I feel like people think of surfers as kind of hippies, they think they’re just disorganized … I think it’s cool to organize them.”