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- Glen Walsh turned daily Instagram surf reports into a trusted local voice, building a visible queer surfing community in Venice.
- Dream Team Surf and events like the Pride beach party created welcoming, protective spaces while films like Out in the Line-Up confronted homophobia.
- Groundswell Community Project-trained programs and queer instructors use surfing as therapy, fostering confidence, healing, and belonging on the water.
At age 14, Glen Walsh started surfing because of a crush. He was a boogie boarder till the things of his adoration told him, “What are you riding that for? You ought to be surfing. Get a surf board.” So, he did. “I was horrible at it, but I maintained going. I was incredibly consistent.”
That strength verified valuable. As a gay teen in Santa Monica, Walsh was usually called slurs on the Venice Pier. “You believe you’re like a unicorn– a weirdo,” he says. He really felt at odds with the local surf area. To Walsh, surfing was “incredibly right, extremely hypermasculine, extremely daunting.” Yet his love of the ocean– and certain, crush-worthy surfers– kept him returning to the water. “I wished to be around them, and browse with them,” he states.
When Instagram launched in 2010, Walsh began uploading among his very early likes– just this time around, it was morning surf problems. Every early morning, before internet users paddled out, the long time Venice local defined swells, winds and browse problems to his followers, ending up being for some the community’s relied on browse historian.
A “Browse Swim” sign welcomes beachgoers at Venice Coastline– a stretch of coastline where everyday surf records and grassroots arranging have assisted break down traditional surf stereotypes.
(Christina House/ Los Angeles Times)
His videos combined insightful dispatches with the laid-back vibe of internet user ASMR. “Light overseas wind. Clean, glassy barrels,” he declares softly to the camera as gray waves damage behind him. “Lumpy close-out with hollow barrels with reduced trend, fam.”
Initially, the account operated like a team chat for local surfers. “Pals were asking me how the waves were, and I was texting them. I figured I ‘d get on Instagram and start doing it for them,” says Walsh, that has been a Venice citizen for 15 years.
What began as a functional update for a handful of buddies eventually attracted fans in London, Berlin and Tokyo– people that signed in everyday to see whether the surf was shooting in Venice Beach. The account has actually accumulated over 10, 000 followers, inspiring imitator accounts. “Now it’s simply for everyone,” claims Walsh. “I built a community around the browse reports. It really blew me away. I didn’t understand that individuals were so interested.”
His surf reports have made him an unofficial mayor of Venice browse culture, obtaining recognized at the coastline community’s local hangouts like Hinano Coffee shop and the Cow’s End “Individuals quit me and tell me they enjoy my surf records. They don’t even surf, however they see it everyday,” says Walsh. “I constantly tell individuals I’m incredibly popular in between Washington Blvd, Lincoln Blvd and Rose Avenue.” His label around town is Glenice Venice.
Nonetheless, the actual triumph wasn’t becoming well-known around Venice– it was discovering other queer web surfers, something that really felt evasive in Walsh’s young people in Southern The golden state. “I had actually met a great deal of other web surfers from throughout the globe and constructed a queer area of internet users here in L.A.,” claims Walsh. “It was rather amazing.”
Walsh saw a chance to utilize his surf report to not just report on the problem of the sea– which is specifically uncertain during our present El Niño cycles — but to likewise produce an expanding queer room in the Venice browse scene. “I can set up a community-based surf report for everybody, and the fact that I happen to be queer made it a little bit much more distinct,” he claims. He started to connect with gay internet users, organizing journeys with them and developing long-term friendships. “It was just a lot of enjoyable, constructing a little group.”
Later on, Walsh ended up being a co-producer and music supervisor of a flick about homophobia in surfing entitled “Out in the Line-Up” that premiered at film events throughout the globe in cities such as New york city, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. “The film type of represented itself. It was a globally issue– homophobia in surfing.” Ever since, Walsh has offered on panels regarding queer individuals in the surf globe. Last June, the film had a 10 th anniversary testing in Venice, organized by the Venice Browsing Assn “Eventually, I brought some diversity to this society. I put my name on it,” he says.
Recently, others have joined Walsh’s initiatives to create a blossoming queer browse scene at Venice Coastline. In 2020, Shelly Guidera moved to Venice and saw that there had not been a strong queer existence in surfing. “My buddy and I were maybe the only queer people a few of these web surfers had actually ever seen,” she says. Shortly after, Guidera began Dream Team Surf, a collective for queer surfers to meet up and construct friendship.
Its objective is straightforward. “It’s everyone watching out for each other,” Guidera states.” Having a group of individuals makes the experience that far more improving and risk-free.”
Surfers ride the waves near the Venice Pier, where Glen Walsh does his everyday browse records.
(Eric Thayer/ Los Angeles Times)
Early, Guidera was motivated by Walsh’s uplifting presence in the Venice surf scene. “This person is respected in the neighborhood wherefore he brings, which is expertise and understanding and enjoyable and panache,” states Guidera. Subsequently, Walsh has actually championed Dream Team Surf
In January 2025, Dream Team Browse hosted a Pride coastline party with a banner that reviewed: “Trans bodies belong on the coastline.” In some San Diego location coastlines, Guidera states, queer depiction can still feel like an abnormality. “It’s so funny since it’s like these individuals have actually maybe never ever seen a woman in a bathing suit with hairy legs,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not that deep.'”
Guidera is certified in surf treatment, taking courses with Groundswell Neighborhood Task , a browse treatment program that utilizes surf to promote all natural healing. The mental health and wellness benefits of searching are lifelong, Guidera explains. “Growing up as a swimmer, searching was a type of play and health,” she says. “It relieved the brakes on competition and the structure within competitive swimming.”
Group picture of Dream Team Browse, which held a Pride beach celebration.
(Sara Werner)
Even if you do not shred waves, being in the ocean can promote recovery. “To offer people access to the sea that remains in and of itself a form of wellness,” she states. “There’s a level of abandonment and humility that includes browsing and that features being in nature. … You need to be so present in such a way that makes you a stronger individual.”
Like Guidera, Walsh additionally works as a browse instructor with a comparable objective to infuse confidence in his students. “I was teaching a lot of individuals to surf, mostly women that didn’t want a straight male to teach them just how to browse because it really feels prone enough,” says Walsh. “I attempt to break down the stereotypes and have a little fun with them and let them end up being a child once more.”
When done properly, he argues, surfing can invite expansiveness. “I enjoy seeing people out there. Feel the fear and do it anyway,” claims Walsh. “And creating a way of life around it– going to various coastlines– and meeting buddies.”
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