Rhonda Harper of Black Girls Surf lied. The NBC camera crew lied. Sea Maven Mag lied. The Inertia did a piss poor story on it, using the lies told to them by NBC's Jeff Mercado. Every site that followed just reposted those stories. Absolutely no site or news agency got any info from anyone who was there. Everything posted came from the vicious Rhonda Harper and her crew. Now the following is compiled from interviews and casual chit-chat with people that were present at the Venice Pier when this incident occurred. We talked to surfers that were in the water, people that were on the pier, and to Wagner Lima himself.
DISCLAIMER: Shacked Mag is not defending the actions of any of the parties enveloped in this incident, or in the incidents that resulted from it. We do feel that the public needs to know the truth of the entire story, from before the leash pull to all the drama that happened following it, and that will continue to happen due to Black Girls Surf's Rhonda Harper's constant use of her false version of what happened to get money to fund her fake surf coaching business.
Rhonda Harper of Black Girls Surf lied. The NBC camera crew lied. Sea Maven Mag lied. The Inertia did a piss poor story on it, using the lies told to them by NBC's Jeff Mercado. Every site that followed just reposted those stories. Absolutely no site or news agency got any info from anyone who was there. Everything posted came from the vicious Rhonda Harper and her crew (in PART 2 and 3, evidence will be revealed why Harper is not a person to trust, and what her true agenda is: $$$$).
Now the following is compiled from interviews and casual chit-chat with people that were present at the Venice Pier when this incident occurred. We talked to surfers that were in the water, people that were on the pier, and to Wagner Lima himself.
How is a little site like Shacked able to get info that sites like The Inertia or LA Times were unable to? Because they don't know this spot or the people like we do. And they were just too eager to jump on this race-baiting bandwagon, they don't care about actually reporting the truth, they just want the clicks.
So grab a big ol' bucket of popcorn, because this whole fake racism drama is kind of long, and this is just the first part of all this ridiculous drama.
PART 1: The Leash Pull
Here is the entire true story about what happened that day:
Rhonda Harper, the self-proclaimed surf coach and founder of Black Girls Surf, shows up at the Venice Pier with Khadjou Sambe. Khadjou is a mediocre surfer from Senegal, one of the only female surfers from that country, therefor by default she can try out for the Olympics (even though her surfing has been describe as average at best). So Rhonda brought her to California to "train" her for the Olympics (we talk about that laughable "training" in one of the next parts). The reason we are to believe for them coming to the pier is that they are shooting a news piece on Khadjou's Olympic dreams, even though Harper makes many comments stating it is a Black Girls Surf shoot (as she is just using Khadjou to get donations for her "coaching" company).
Danielle Lyons, a surfer from San Diego, was asked by Rhonda to come up to Venice and be a part of this shoot with NBC.
Once at the Venice Pier, Khadjou and Danielle go out to surf, not Rhonda though, because Rhonda doesn't surf. Yup, that's right, a surf coach that can't surf. According to some of her ex-friends, they all say "Rhonda can't surf for shit", and that's putting it nicely. More on that in one of the next parts of this ridiculous drama.
Now Rhonda has stated that this was a
"closed set", meaning only her surfers are supposed to be surfing. Yet, neither her nor anyone from NBC have any permits for this shoot. She still goes around telling others they can't surf right now. One parent said her son was told he can't surf because they are filming for the Olympics.
A few surfers in the water, as well as some people watching on the pier have all said that the two girls with the film crew were snaking a lot of the other surfers.
"I'm surprised that #######(name withheld) didn't do something, because he got snaked a few times", one of the surfers that was in the water said.
Everyone we talked to that was there that day pretty much said the same thing, that Rhonda and her crew came and tried to take over the spot. "She does that shit all the time", stated one person that knows Rhonda from previous encounters. It seems Rhonda is infamous for barging into spots with her crew and trying localize the spot, there are comments on different surf forums dating back prior to this incident that say the same about her.
So it's not the scenario that the feminist blog Sea Maven lied about it being. It's not the scenario that all other websites stated it was. It is not the scenario Rhonda Harper tells all the news sites it was.
Eventually Wagner Lima shows up, and as most surfers usually do, he goes onto the pier to check the waves. Upon seeing the camera crew, he asks what are they filming. He is told that they were filming a "professional Olympic surfer". Wagner fancies himself a competitive surfer, so he checks out the surfing of this so-called "professional Olympic surfer". After witnessing some poor surfing on some weak waves by the "professional Olympic surfer" he tells the camera crew "That's professional Olympic surfers? They know nothing about surfing, they're a joke." Wagner throws up the peace sign and says, "Later" and he walks back to his vehicle.
Now this is where NBC's Jeff Mercado starts lying about everything. Yes, that is correct, NBC's producer/cameraman is flat out lying about what went down. One of the lies Jeff has been quoted saying is that Wagner threw up V for Venice (gang sign) then went to maliciously attack the girls. Jeff Mercado doesn't know one thing about surfing, that's for sure, but not knowing what the peace sign is? And this is NBC's news producer. He also claims Wagner had malicious intent to go harm the girls.
That is one of the many lies Rhonda keeps using to promote her agenda, as seen in this comment of hers:
That comment of Rhonda's was one reply to someone on Instagram just questioning the fact that the leash pull was probably not racially motivated. You can see right there the type of individual Rhonda really is (and there's a lot more screencaps of her bully and belittling people to come, as well as a bunch of her hateful and racist posts about white people, men, and the surf industry, in general).
Wagner was clueless about Rhonda and the NBC crew trying to insinuate he threw up a gang sign. When asked about it, Wagner was surprised. We asked him did he throw up his usual shaka or a V for Venice sign to the cameraman, he replied, "I did peace. I would never do Venice, that's ridiculous...they're lying, bro."
Back at his vehicle, Wagner suits up and heads out to surf. He says he got "snaked a few times, but whateva." Wagner is in the same area as Khadjou and Danielle because that's were the waves are. Not because he is targeting the girls, like Rhonda and NBC's Jeff Mercado claim, but then again, neither of those two know anything about surfing, so maybe we can give them the benefit of their ignorance. Hell, Rhonda said in one of her most recent interviews that the best wave in Southern California is Huntington Beach Pier.
It could be that Wagner wanted to show off to this Olympic camera crew or that he wants to show them that he can surf better than this "professional Olympic surfer", so is that why he was near them? We asked him what's up with that, he said, "That's where the waves were. I don't care about the filming. A lot of photographers always filming here, I just ask any of them if I want video, I don't need to show off to them (the NBC crew)."
So they're all surfing the same area. Now on this one mushy 1-2ft wave, he and Danielle want it, she gets it, Wagner still wants it. He lets Danielle go by and he then goes for it, but he is too close and his board goes through her long leash. He gets up seeing that the leash wrapped on his board, so he grabs it and starts pulling it. Danielle turns back to see what's going on, Wagner gives the leash more of a tug while looking the other way, he lets go and they both fall of their boards.
This did not happen dangerously close to the pier, as Rhonda is claiming. You can clearly see from the photos it was not near the pier at all. Where the sun is on December mornings, there would be the pier's shadow covering them and the photos would be looking more downward at them if this was even near being close to the pier.
"She goes around me, so I want to go that way, but her leash was around my board", Wagner said. It's as simple as that. Wagner further explains, " I know you going right. And I'm behind you, I'm gonna go right too...Because there is only one road in a wave. She did like this: went around me and in front of my board, you know. And that's when the leash got caught in my nose in like..then I was like oh fugghhh... uuummm...
tried to move the leash, it didn't move, we fell."
Here's an image that was posted in the
comments section of Surfer.com's story on this, you can see here that they show the leash is definitely wrapped around Wagner's board:
Wagner did not go out there to harass the girls as Rhonda is stating to all the news sites. It's not about race, it's not about localism. Ironically , it was Rhonda that was trying to localize this spot as her own, as she is infamous already for trying it at other spots in California. Same can be said about this race thing as well. It's actually the other way around.
Wagner is known in the area, and some like him, some don't, some just don't care about him, but the one thing they will all say about him is that he is not racist. So the claims by Black Girls Surf, NBC, and that feminist blog Sea Maven about this being a hate crime is false. They are just race baiting, because Rhonda knows she can get more publicity from it to solicit donations to her fake surf coaching company.
After they fall, Wagner told us, "bro, I tried to tell her sorry right there, she yelled at me, and then some lady on the pier starts going crazy yelling a bunch of things." And that would be Rhonda.
Eventually Wagner leaves the water, he had a friend he was meeting and some errands to do nearby. He also gets a smoothie. As he is walking back to the pier parking lot, he sees Danielle and Rhonda at a vehicle. Wagner tells us, "I saw her, I go to tell her, you know, I'm sorry. Bro, they're both cursing at me telling me stuff." And the
Rinse Kit? "She sprayed me all with water. Soaking wet, bro. Sprayed my face, my shirt, pants."
But in reality, looks like Rhonda wasn't mad at all. She was f@#King happy as Sh!t! Why? Because it appears she finally got what she has always wanted, a white guy to make an example of, a white guy she could finally take all her anger out on, and it'll be pretty damn good way to get more donations for her company. She couldn't wait to start posting on her Facebook.
But Wagner isn't white, he's Brazilian. He speaks with a strong Portuguese accent too. But Rhonda don't care, he's light skinned enough to be the white guy she needs.
She changes her tone just a bit and goes for the sympathy angle in her next Facebook post on it:
Now this is where it all goes crazy.
Rhonda returns to the Venice Pier the next day to hunt down Wagner.
"I'm going to ruin you!" she yells to Wagner.
She then starts her online vendetta to destroy Wagner... and to use this incident to raise money for her company:
Those screencaps above are just a snippet of what is to come next. Rhonda just goes full throttle on her vendetta. Hell, even Danielle who is the victim in this eventually this ends her friendship with Rhonda due to Rhonda's desire to try to profit off of this. The good thing is that Rhonda is not smart enough to keep all her lies in order and ends up contradicting herself, plus she gets some important facts incorrect, and she let's her anger expose her true nature quite often.
To Be Continued...like in 2 days.
Red Bull‘s WallRide contest will be held in lovely Venice Beach on Saturday, March 9. Weather has been a thorn in this contest’s side, which was originally scheduled for December and then moved to February. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a sunny day!
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