Richmond is full of characters. There are bands like No BS! Brass, a bicycle club known as the Cutthroats, and fashionistas like Marshe Wyche and Casey Longyear of Rumors Boutique. Now, a new group of locals are looking to set themselves apart from the crowd. Whether they are out on the James or at the beach, the RVA Surf Club has set out on a mission to change the river city to surf city.
Moving inland might seem like the end of the world to a native Hawaiian. Instead, in 2010 Jon Angot formed the RVA Surf Club through Virginia Commonwealth University, to find people who shared his enthusiasm for surfing and saving gas money.
“It was [really] slow at first, but we had a five or six core group of people who were always down to surf with me,” said Angot. “From meeting them, they knew people who knew other people, and word of mouth took over.”
Two years later, the club has over 70 active members and nearly 200 likes on its Facebook page. Over the years, Angot says he grew closer to the members than he had ever imagined.
“Once I started meeting all these people and hanging out, I was like, yes, these fools are going to be lifelong friends,” Angot said. “These are people I want to surround myself with in Richmond.”
Since the James River does not provide enough waves to actually surf, the members travel to beaches along the East Coast. Most recent places include Virginia Beach, and North Carolina communities like Rodanthe and Nags Head. Some of the members have traveled together internationally to Costa Rica, and others are planning trips to Nicaragua in the winter.
Andrew Pack, one of the current leaders of the club, says the members find plenty of surf-related activities when they can’t make it out to the beach.
“Our lifestyle turned into skating as much as we could, paddling on the river and just doing whatever we could to stay stoked about surfing,” said Pack.
In the past year, the club organized several fundraisers for new equipment, pulling in nearly $1,000. With the money raised, members can take beginners who could not access a surfboard otherwise into the water.
“Red Bull has helped us out [with fundraising]…and stepped up on a local level to make this happen,” said Pack.
Pack and Angot are working to create a RVA Surf Club website, where members can post upcoming trips to the beach on a forum. Angot says the ultimate plan is for Richmond to be a known as a surf city, except without an ocean in its backyard.
“The big view is turning Richmond into the epicenter of what we’re calling in-lander surf culture,” Angot said. “I think it would be a great goal, [in] the long run, to have Richmond evolve into this surf culture hub of people that are just like us.”
