Ten things I learned from Surfers Healing
Surfers Healing: An organization that runs free one-day surf camps for children with autism.
My husband: A highly energetic and motivated person, who, in addition to working like crazy at his real job and coaching a handful of little league teams, coordinated Surfers Healing’s inaugural Florida event. He had some help, most notably from his amazing friend Daniel Paisner, co-author of Scratching the Horizon: A Surfing Life, a book about Surfers Healing founder Izzy Paskowitz, and another equally amazing (not to mention ridiculously generous) friend, Tom Feeley who hosted the event at his hotel, Sole on the Ocean.
But still. As someone who can barely make it to the grocery store these days, I am in total awe of the tremendous amount of effort that went into putting this thing together.
It happened this past weekend, and, well…wow! What an education–for the kids who learned to surf, and for me too. Here’s some of what I took away.
1. The surfing community is full of natural-born therapists. The humongous-hearted professional surfers who came all the way from California and Hawaii (plus a few from Florida, too) are equal parts patient, chill, firm, and sweet. As you might imagine, some of the children were terrified to hit the waves (even Benjamin, who has surfed before and loves it, freaked out over being made to wear a life jacket), and these guys handled it like the pros that they are. Children were gently(ish) pried from their parents and thrown onto boards, where the surfers rode the waves with them, tandem-style. According to my unscientific survey, 99 percent of the kids came back thrilled.
Benjamin’s first outing required lots of manpower.
2. The surfing community is full of people with excellent core strength and balance.
3. Being so involved has its perks, the main one being that our typical children got to surf, too. (Yes, that’s Ayla up there.) And here’s one of Ayla and Zack, surfing together.
4. Watching families cheer as their kids ride back into shore really pulls at the heartstrings.
5. So does the outpouring of support from our friends, who made donations and showed up to spend the day with us.
6. It’s entirely normal to throw up while surfing. Luckily it didn’t stop Benjamin from going right back out.
7. Sometimes when cops approach you on the beach, it’s not to question your permit. It’s to tell you how impressed they are–and that they’re sending over their friends from the local news.
8. Being in the presence of so many cool tattoos can make an eight-year-old realize that the kind he’s getting in birthday party loot bags are lame. Let’s just say Zack is really looking forward to turning 18.
9. It takes a very special person to run this kind of organization.
Izzy Paskowitz = very special person.
10. When Izzy used the word “magic” to describe these events, he was 100 percent right.
