Interview with Action Sports Lawyer & Foundation Founder, Becky Mendoza
Becky is a rad inspiring surfer who also happens to be an action sports lawyer, helping professional surfers achieve their dreams, as well as a Co-Founder of Changing Tides Foundation. We’ve known about her through Changing Tides for a while, but we wanted to learn more about her own personal journey in life with her work.
What was a key moment that led you to want to pursue Action Sports Law Group (ASLG), specifically?
Wow, I haven’t talked about ASLG in a long time. As far as starting ASLG, I think for me where it really began was when I started surfing, which was when I was in law school. I became so passionate about it and so interested in what was beyond just the actual sport of surfing, so for me, I looked into the business-side of things. I have a masters in Sports Administration that I did while I was in law school. I basically did Law all during the day and my masters in Sports Administration at night. And it was while I was doing that program that I started surfing. When I was doing my masters, everything that was assigned to me was essentially, “Okay, do a case study on a particular team or sport that you're interested in,” and I always chose surfing.
So, as far as surfing goes, it came natural to me to move into other action sports because, at that time, the big publication was EXPN, and they covered all the sports and I interned at Wasserman. It was also really early on in the X-games time so it wasn’t just one sport in particular that was big but a lot of different action sports. That's where my interest in action sports started, and I was already on track to become an attorney. So, once I finished law school, I came out here to Encinitas. I had resolved that I wanted to live in California and work in action sports. But I wasn’t sure what the opportunities were or how I was going to do that. Also, when I moved out to California it was during an economic recession, so I had to get creative. I ended up getting hired to work part-time at a law firm that did visas for foreign polo players and equestrians athletes. And for me, when I started learning what these visas were about I was like, “Woah, action sports athletes should have these visas as well.” I started asking questions to the people I knew in action sports and nobody really knew about these visas. Nobody really knew that you actually needed them to be authorized to compete in your sport in the United States. So then, I took what I learned in immigration and equestrian discipline, and applied it to action sports. That’s exactly how Action Sports Law Group started.
I actually met my first 3 clients at a bar in Encinitas; they were three pro surfers from Australia and they were looking for a way to come stay and rent a place here and be closer to their sponsors. And they were my first 3 clients.
Top Photo by: @euniquedeeann — Above photo by: @barkerphoto
How does your identity as a woman, surfer, and Cuban-American affect how you navigate the law field?
I’ve always been really proud of my heritage because I grew up in a place where it was normal to be Cuban-American. I was surrounded by Cuban-Americans growing up in Miami. To me, I never felt like I was out of place or a minority. The older generation of Cuban-American and Latine American cultures view women as the ones who stay home and cook and clean. But, my dad actually always really supported and promoted me in doing sports and kind of stepping outside of that box. And so I was always like, “Yeah, whatever my brother can do I can do too.” He just always did it a little bit better than me because he’s a really good athlete, so that always pushed me. As far as moving out here to California, I definitely felt being a woman in a male-dominated industry. I definitely felt that. But, I also really felt like being an educated woman in a male-dominated industry was actually really well-received.
As a woman in the action sports industry, without the title of being an attorney or working with a particular client that somebody might be a fan of, that it’s difficult for sure. Because I’d be in a conversation with somebody, and I would never really mention that I was a lawyer—I never really would bring that up casually in conversation because I didn’t want that to define me. And that’s when I would feel it. It’s such a bro-bro industry that it feels tough to be equal. But honestly, as many men as there are not making it easy, I think there are that many men that are really trying to be inclusive of women in the industry as well.
I think as far as being Cuban-American, I've never felt discriminated against, even here in California. I view moving away from Miami, where I was like everybody else, to a place across the country where I was actually a minority as a strength. When I tell people I'm Cuban, they are interested because it’s a rare thing here. So it’s really interesting. You would definitely think a person who is not only a Hispanic minority but also a woman, that being a professional in action sports would be really challenging. But for me, it hasn’t actually factored in at all.
But what if I wasn't a lawyer? What if I wasn't whoever's, so and so, lawyer? How would I be treated? And the answer is typically how most women in the industry are treated. So I've been fortunate to not experience that but I have definitely witnessed that inequity.
Yeah. And I think that can also apply to a lot of things in regards to social agency. I feel that even with myself and Sea Together.
Totally. Now we're also kind of seeing that with Changing Tides, but in a really cool and beautiful way. More and more people are like, “Oh, here's what we're doing,” and “Help us spread the word,” and as a charitable foundation, that's kind of our job. We are happy to use that as a force (social agency) for good. But, it really is interesting how when you tell people what you do professionally or what you've accomplished, like that you started a magazine, then people do kind of treat you differently. You know—is that a bad thing? Or is that a good thing? It's kind of strange.
Yeah, it’s multifaceted. And going off of that, what has been the most eye-opening learning experiences while in your surfing law career?
What I've learned about, especially practicing immigration specific to this sport, is that I have a lot of people’s future in my hands. There are some athletes who are at the top of their career and absolutely killing it and so their cases are really easy. But, then there are those whose cases aren’t as easy. I think where I've learned the most is in those cases that aren't as strong. The cases where the athletes are trying so hard to make it and pursue their dreams. I think that there is a lot of learning in understanding the hardships that they face as athletes, because athletes are stigmatized as well.
Some people might think that these action sports athletes get to just go do whatever they want and be on the beach all the time. But really, these guys are putting their life and their limbs on the line, and they're really trying to fight to make their dreams come true. So the bigger experiences that have really touched me have been working with lesser known athletes and helping them to create opportunities for their future and chase their dreams here in the United States. Watching them succeed once they get here is icing on the cake.
There's one athlete in particular, that came from South Africa, who had a movie made about him. And he is probably one of the better street skateboarders out of Africa. In the bigger global community of skateboarding, he may not have been very well recognized or recognized at all, but in South Africa he was at the very top and he deserved the opportunity to come and be in the United States and chase his dreams and chase the opportunity. And for me that was the biggest passion project I ever did as an attorney. Working with him to make those dreams a reality and then, on top of that, to be able to watch a film that showed the struggles he has faced in his life was incredible. I think a lot of people think that all action sports athletes come from money or come from opportunity. And that's not necessarily the case. He was homeless, he was abused, and he became addicted to drugs as a very young kid because he was on the streets. All of the sudden, knowing that I had helped him allowed me to really feel that heartfelt, deep connection with him because I knew how much this meant to him. And then actually watching his life story in a film carried incredible impact. To me, that was probably one of the more fulfilled moments that I've had in my practice and having that realization of understanding that what I do makes a difference. It's not just lawyer work.
And then I would say another thing is having launched Changing Tides Foundation, what we've been able to do with Changing Tides Foundation, and the reach we've been able to get with it, that a lot of that has come from the connections that I built as an action sports attorney. And so being able to use contacts to activate athletes and people that I know would be passionate about a cause. Having had the opportunity to put Changing Tides Foundation in front of them at an early stage really propelled the success of the foundation. So really I think in another sense, having through Action Sports Law Group, and starting Changing Tides Foundation, gaining this understanding that athletes do want to use their persona, their personality for good, and they do want to make a difference. That's also been a really powerful and beautiful thing to learn in my role as an attorney watching that translate into charitable purpose.
Photo by Jianca Lazarus
