A Black surfer shredded his local surfing community in Jupiter, Florida, after he claimed he was harassed by a group of white surfers who nailed his surfboard to a tree.
The Instagram page @black.surfers posted about the incident and included images of the surfboard pinned to a palm tree.
The page wrote of Andrew Mills, the surfer who was harassed, stating that he was subjected to a racially-motivated act of vandalism and a “symbolic lynching of his board.”
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Mills spoke with The Daily Beast and said it all started when he went to Jupiter Beach to surf. As he was out on the water, another surfer from an all-white group rushed into him and seemed to purposely flip Mills’ board.
“The message was just to let me know, ‘You can’t come around here and mess with us,’” The 41-year-old father of two told The Daily Beast. “They were trying to throw me out of the water, pushing me around. I know they feel a certain way about me because I’m Black.”
Mills told the outlet they crowded him, told him he wasn’t welcome, and then accused him of being another Black surfer they encountered on another beach. After a brief discussion with Mills on the beach when they tried to talk to him about the hostility, Mills said he just wanted to leave the animosity behind and go back to surfing. That’s when someone stole his surfboard from the back of his truck and nailed it to a tree.
“This is how real the racism and hate is in Jupiter, Florida. They can’t stand to see a Black man in their waters. I was told ‘I’m not welcome,’” Mills said. “Stole my board when I turned my back and they did this. Said it was a message. They nailed it to the tree like a lynching.”
Mills said he didn’t retrieve the board until he had filed a…
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