Until a few years ago, surfing was illegal in Cuba. The surfing ban stemmed from a time in Cuba’s history called the “Special Period,” a time of economic crisis when many thousands of Cubans sought to escape the island in homemade boats. In Cuba, they say that just being alive makes you brave. Those few who dared to surf did so on homemade boards in constant fear of fines, imprisonment, and worse. But athletic excellence and the Olympics mean a lot to Cuba. When the International Olympic Committee recognized surfing as an Olympic sport in 2016, Frank Gonzales and Yaya Guerrero led the small group of underground surfers in Cuba to persuade their government to accept surfing as a “recreational activity,” a policy that would allow them to cross borders to compete with, and learn from, the world.