What is a surfer?

The Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (1977), otherwise known as The Big Red Book, defines surfing thus: riding breaking waves on a surfboard or in a surf-canoe. According to rather more contemporaneous www.answers.com, the noun - 'surfer' - denotes "one who engages in the sport of surfing."  The notion of surfing being a sport - as opposed to a way of life, or an art, or even (who knows?) a transcendental act of freedom and beauty - would therefore seem to have become embedded in modern consciousness. This seems to chime with the sizeable faction, in surf cultures around the world, who believe that competition and aggression are all, that only those capable of Olympian athleticism in the water are worthy of calling themselves surfers. I have never been very sure of this school of thought (one which is regrettably encouraged by much of the surf media), for it seems pregnant with elitism, not to say even a rather disturbing quasi-facism. To accept this school of thought is to obliterate from the surfing universe the thousands of people who will never surf Uluwatu at 12ft, let alone mellow Malibu point or seductive Sennen Cove. It is also to deny the surfing stoke to Paul Solotaroff's son Luke and some tricky kids from Bridgend. Confused? Don't be. Read on and when you've got to the end, ask yourself: what is a surfer? 

I heard about Luke Solotaroff through Simon Jayham on www.bloggsd.com. Luke is seven years old, lives in New York, and is profoundly autistic. He is one of an estimated 90,000 American sufferers of a syndrome known as 'Fragile X,' a mutation of the X chromosome that engenders almost complete disarray in the nervous system. Luke was floppy at birth, late rolling over, late sitting up and later still crawling. His early life was spent on a carousel of medical inquisition, and now, at 7, he is still a long way from being toilet trained. He has autism and epilepsy, and his parents - who are in the midst of a divorce - have no idea of his IQ because he can't, or won't follow instructions. As his father wrote in The Observer in December: "Picture having to live in a video arcade with the volume on and wattage full up, where everyone around you is racing past, speaking Mandarin at the top of their lungs. Your shirt feels like Brillo, your shoes like cement, and the breeze on your skin like the thwack of a soaking towel that's been left to chill in the fridge. That, in a nutshell, is my little boy."

Solotaroff, a Brooklyn-based journalist, despaired. How to improve the quality of Luke's life? One night, having collapsed on the couch to watch TV, he came across a profile of Honolulu-born Israel "Izzy" Paskowitz, a former pro surfer who runs a surf camp in San Diego. Izzy's father, Dorian "The Doc" Paskowitz, practised medicine in Hawaii after WW2, where he also surfed with the likes of Buffalo Keaulana. Izzy had inherited a formidable surfing legacy from his father, and dreamed of passing it on to his own son, Isaiah. But at the age of 18 months, Isaiah changed. He became agitiated and quick to throw tantrums. He was autistic.

Izzy did not, initially, cope. He lost himself on tour and drank too much. But he came back, and one day, at the beach as Isaiah was in the middle of a fit, suddenly conceived of taking him surfing. With Isaiah at the front of the board and Izzy steering from the back, the pair had a blast. As Solotaroff wrote: "Riding his first swell straight into shore, Isaiah grew calm, then exultant... He began again to talk, his mood improved, and his frustration lessened."

Izzy and his wife Danielle hit then upon the idea of www.surfershealing.org, which hosts day surf camps for autistic children. Now in its sixth year, Surfers Healing has blossomed so much that Izzy and Danielle were able to hold 12 free events across America last year. Learning of all this, Solotaroff put in a call, only to realise that flying Luke to San Diego from New York was not an option. But the threads of surfing always connect, and soon he was taking a call himself from Elliot Zuckerman of www.surf2live.com. Zuckerman (opposite) is a pro surfer on Long Island, New York, and he had a suggestion: he would take Luke for a surf. (Yes, there is surf near NYC - check out www.newyorksurf.com for the evidence.)

And so Solotaroff found himself at the beach, and watched as Zuckerman took Luke surfing in blue-black 9C water. Any surfer reading this knows what happened next. Luke was stoked. Zuckerman, who regularly teaches disadvantaged kids, got him riding, and Luke loved every minute. His "expression is first stricken, then shocked, [then] suddenly drops into a grin so big I see spray go into his mouth," recounts Solotaroff. "My little boy is surfing!"

A few days later, father and son are back for more, but this time both of them take to the water. Solotaroff fails to get to his feet, but has never been happier. And, for Luke, the stoke is full on. "On a surfboard Luke is instantly in all his glory," writes Solotaroff, whose bond with his son is as tangible as the pair's new-found delight in the ocean.

Closer to home, this last picture is of a group of kids from Bridgend, in Wales, who were taken surfing by Simon Tucker's Surfing Academy. You can find it at www.stronboxuk.com/tucker/main.htm, and you can take it from me that Tucker, whose surf school is based at Rest Bay in Porthcawl, is one of the most genuine characters in British surfing. The Bridgend kids are not from nice, affluent, middle-class backgrounds, indeed they're from the harder side of life. They're from socially marginalised backgrounds, and wouldn't ordinarily go to the beach, even though they live just a few miles away. But thanks to the efforts www.drugs.gov.uk/young-people/positive-futures they were taken surfing by Tucker. Louise Williams, of Bridgend Positive Futures, summed up their experience:

"These are kids who live a few miles from the beach and yet they never go. One girl lives within walking distance of the sea and has never been in the water. Even they wanted to, they can't afford to surf, which is why we offered them taster sessions. Seeing those kids standing up on the boards was beautiful. I can't describe how fantastic it was - they were so proud of themselves, and it was wonderful for their confidence. One girl who had never surfed before and who's struggled with her weight turned out to be really good, and a lad who has difficulty using the right side of his body was in the water with the rest of them and enjoying himself. Whatever their difficulties out of the water, in the water there were no difficulties at all."

A good friend of mine, surf photographer Al Mackinnon (one of whose shots appears at the beginning of this piece), had this to say when we were debating what constitutes 'a surfer' on one of our trips: "You know what? Sometimes people forget what surfing's about. They confuse it with everything it's not, but it's simple. It's about being stoked."

Luke Solotaroff and the kids from Bridgend are surfers. Are you?

   

Comments

[Alex Wade]

To anyone who catches this overnight (it's 9.00pm UK time) - apologies, there's a formatting problem that I'll resolve tomorrow.

[Paula The Surf Mom]

Good post Alex... There was a time in my surfing life that the completive aspects of surfing was what it was all about. It was all about bigger waves, bigger stoke and surfing better then the "other guy".

In my younger days my mind was not quiet enough to take in the whole picture of what surfing really is and could be.

Today it is actually more difficult to find the words to describe the feelings I get when I surf because those feelings are far more complex then when I was a younger party and stoke surfer.

[Gary]

Billabong hit the nail on the head when they came up with their mantra "only a surfer knows the feeling".

[Tim Kevan]

Don't want to quote poetry to sound pretentious but Paula's point - that it's often hard to put into words. Drew Kampion writes beautifully about being a surfer in The Book of Waves. He quotes the poet Rilke and the following lines, “We are the bees of the invisible. We distractedly plunder the honey of the visible in order to accumulate it within the golden hive of the invisible.” Al Mackinnon has put this even more clearly. Great post Alex.

[Antoine]

Robert "wingnut" Weaver summed it up nicely when he said, "there are a million different kinds of surfing and as long as you have a smile on your face, you're doing it right."

[izzy]

Thanks Alex, out of such a selfish sport that surfing can be sharing THE RIDE, with anyone whom is less fortunate is were the real Aloha begins...we hope to have a surf day for the UK's children with autism this May, lord willing.

WANTED: Volunteers!!!

[Isabelle]

It's good to hear that young people who might otherwise never experience surfing are being given the chance to do so, whatever their problems. Wonder if any of the big kit companies have thought of sponsoring kids in need to give surfing a go - would have thought everyone's a winner from that situation.

[Sara]

I have the pleasure of knowing Luke personally as I was his camp instructor several years ago, what a wonderful kid. I'm thrilled that he found something that he was able to enjoy, surfing is a great activity.