Surfers Healing
As a child, my mother had a quote written on a chalk board that hung over the stove. It read, “Living by the sea heals new wounds, stops old ones from hurting, revitalizes the spirit, and quickens the passion. It was a mantra that influenced my life greatly as I took to the ocean to cure wounds internal and external alike. I never really thought however, about the true healing qualities that surfing has until I heard about Fulcrum Coaches Sean Santiago and Josh Torres participating in a Surfers Healing charity event. Lending their impeccable ocean awareness and teaching skills, the two coaches impacted the lives of those who live with autism.
Surfer’s Healing was founded by the legendary Israel Paskowitz, who was inspired to take autistic kids surfing by his son Isiah. After witnessing the tremendous calming effect surfing had on his son, he decided to start Surfers Healing as a way to give autistic children the ultimate blessing of riding waves. With a grassroots beginning, the charity has quickly grown from their son Isiah to 4,500 participants throughout the world. 1 and 68 children in the United States are born with autism, and while that number appears staggering, Surfers Healing thinks in ones, “One Child. One Family. One day at the beach”
I have been asked on numerous occasions what was the most fulfilling lesson that I have given as a Fulcrum Surf Coach and my answer is always when I took an autistic child named Nicholas surfing in Del Mar. On that very occasion, a plethora of Nicholas’s classmates were in the water and he was riding waves just like the rest of them. Before every ride, he would give the safety speech that you often hear before you ride a roller coaster, “ Keep your hands and feet inside the cart at all times. At no point on this ride is flash photography or video recording permitted. Now sit back, and enjoy the ride”. For that hour that I shared with Nicholas, he absolutely adopted me into his world which was far more exciting and spontaneous then those without autism. I left that lesson noticeably moved and wanted to do nothing more then to give lessons to those who I knew surfing would impact their lives for the greater. After our session, I told Nicholas’s mother about Clay Marzo, a national champion surfer who was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. For autistic children, Clay is their hero as he is a living testimony that kids with autism can achieve astounding fetes in the sport of kings.
If you would like to donate to Surfers Healing or participate in an event, you can find out more information at http://www.surfershealing.org