Surfing With Unicorns

In Out in the Lineup, Cori Schumacher says that male gay surfers are mythical beasts like unicorns. You hear about them, but no one's ever seen one. That was the case for me until this morning, when I met up for a surf with the film's producer, Thomas Castets, and his friend Steve from Florida.

When I moved to the Bay Area and began surfing in earnest eight years ago, it seemed for a time that all of the women I met in the water were gay. I didn't think much of it, since it was San Francisco, after all. But the guys? None of them were gay - as far as I knew.

Now at Avalanche in Ocean Beach, I was out in the lineup with two guys who were out in the lineup, and they were both pretty good surfers. When I asked Thomas what inspired him to make the film, he told me to watch it and see. Although I did once get stuck inside for a grueling while and had to return to the rip to get back out, I held my own on the chest-high waves and pulled some fun lefts from the crowd as we all drifted south toward the pier.