With a comforting nod and smile, Paul Sampson handed an ice-cold acai bowl to a man on a bus bench in Huntington Beach, who was strumming a guitar for whatever change people could spare.
Sampson knows what it’s like to live on the streets, to be hungry. And while the South African surfer has been out in the water among pro surfers from around the world competing at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach this week, he’ll never forget his younger years when he, too, was without a home and living on the streets.
“Growing up on the streets gave me a lot. I really had to decide what I wanted to do and how I wanted to move forward,” said Sampson, now 25.
He could have become a drug addict, or like so many of his friends growing up, turned to gangs.
But surfing was his way out, his path to a better life.
“I don’t have anything to lose and I have everything to gain,” Sampson said on a recent day, soaking in the sights during his first visit to the United States as the crowds started to fill into Surf City. “Without going through difficult times, I think I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”
Sampson is one of more than 100 pro surfers ready to battle at the US Open of Surfing, one of the World Surf League’s Challenger Series events. Doing well here, and at five other stops in the series, could mean a spot on the WSL’s World Tour competing at the highest level of surfing.
Sampson was just 6 years old when he first felt the thrill of riding a surfboard, he said.
His mother had moved Sampson and his brother, Junaid, to Muizenberg near Cape Town. For a birthday present, his brother took him out for a surf session – a moment that would change his life’s path.
“I was hooked,” Sampson said with a big smile. “The first moment for me was amazing, just laying my eyes on the ocean.”
He didn’t know how to swim and was afraid of the ocean, he recalled. But the moment he felt the wave push him toward shore, none of that mattered.
“The moment I stood on a surfboard I thought, ‘This is where I want to be.’ I want to do this for the rest of my life,” he said.
Not long after, his mother died from health complications. Sampson said he and his brother lived on the streets, for a stint even living in a cave on a mountainside.
A man he called an uncle took the brothers in a few years later, giving Sampson a foam surfboard to ride.
Soon after, Sampson entered his first regional competition and did pretty well. Then another and another.
There was something about the challenge of competition he loved, the way he could push himself to excel, he said. It doesn’t matter if he wins or loses, Sampson said, but is more about the personal drive he feels while competing.
He did well at the Cape Town Pro two years ago, which gave him enough points to join the Ballito Pro in South Africa earlier this year, a Challenger Series event, and now the US Open of Surfing.
“This is exactly where I wanted to be. It’s something I never imagined,” Sampson said following Friday’s Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction, where he got to meet some of the sport’s icons. “Huntington is the place to be. It’s a dream come true and it’s overwhelming. Just the vibe here, it’s a good vibe.”
While his dream, like the other surfers in the contest, is to qualify for the elite World Tour, his life goal, he said, is more than surfing at the sport’s highest level.
“I feel like I have more purpose beyond that. I want to show the youth everything is possible if you put your mind to it,” he said.
Friend Geordan Charles, who lives in Los Alamitos, talked about seeing first-hand the impact Sampson is having on his community in South Africa.
Charles traveled to the region a few years ago, picking up the sport of surfing with tips and encouragement from Sampson. The duo developed a strong bond and Charles offered to house Sampson while he’s in town for the big competition.
“The kids, he’s giving them something to fight for, to move toward,” Charles said. “They understand they can do it. It’s not impossible.”
Sampson recently created the African Surf Alliance, which helps youth in South Africa thrive, whether it’s in the water, in school or at other sports.
“He truly is a trailblazer. A lot of people say, ‘You can do whatever you want in life,’” Charles said. “But until you see someone who looks like you do that, especially in the surf community, it opens the door for the younger kids to actually put in the work. They can see, especially where he came from, if you put in the work, everything is possible.”
Sampson said he also wants to be an example for young black surfers who want to compete – if they have a dream to make it to the US Open of Surfing, they see that they can.
“That’s my goal, I just want to inspire. One footprint at a time, one step at a time,” he said. “Just with me being here, I know I’m going to leave a big footprint and show it’s possible.”
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Shaun Tomson, the 1977 surfing world champion, heard about Sampson’s story. Tomson is relaunching his brand, Instinct Surf, originally created in 1979, and quickly signed the fellow South African surfer as a team rider.
Tomson is a motivational speaker and author, the past 20 years of his life focused on spreading inspiration – something he said he also saw in Sampson.
While the young surfer is in town, Tomson will help coach Sampson, but said he also aims to introduce him to key players in the surf industry also in town for the mega event. Tomson has also been helping spread the word about a fundraiser so Sampson can have the funds needed to travel the world so he can follow his dreams.
“His story was so inspirational. The kid was homeless, for a while he had to live in a cave. It would have been so easy for him to fall into drugs or gangs. But he had the commitment and the drive to find his way out and that’s what you have to have to be successful at anything in life,” Tomson said. “He can be an incredible inspiration, not just to the black community in South Africa, but for everyone. He came from nothing and now he’s surfing against the best surfer in the world here in Surf City.”