Wave Builds for Accessible Surfing
Some Disabled People Surf for Therapy, Others for Sheer Joy
Oct 31, 2008
At age 11, Alex Krauth found a Beach Boys’ tape in her father’s collection and was so energized by the music, she took up surfing: despite only modest waves along the Maine coast, despite being blind. “My dad thought I would really enjoy it,” says Krauth, who has gone on to surf in Maui.
Krauth needs no adaptive equipment to surf. Her father, Peter Krauth, swims nearby and alerts her of approaching waves. Surfing has strengthened Krauth’s adventurous spirit and broadened her cultural knowledge to include the study of Hawaiin music and language.
Disability organizations are also discovering and extending surfing’s benefits.
AccesSurf Hawaii Makes Ocean Accessible to Disabled
Since founding AccesSurf Hawaii in 2006, Mark Marble’s “Day at the Beach” program has helped over 500 disabled people (from ages 3 to 83) access the ocean. His staff of 400+ volunteers, which includes professional surfers as well as doctors, rolls special wheelchair mats across the sand and sets up adaptive beach chairs the first Saturday of every month at White Plains Beach in Kalaeola.
The program enables para- and quadriplegics, amputees, and those with Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, and autism to redefine their abilities and sense of the possible by learning adaptive surfing and flotation swimming.
Surfing, especially, improves social and cognitive functions in developmentally disabled children, Marble says. “The sensation of riding the waves has encouraged many children to perform other school and recreational activities,” Marble says. “Participation in AccesSurf is sometimes used as a positive reinforcement.”
Parents and teachers report improvements including:
- Improved communication and social skills
- Increased community integration
- Improved self esteem
- Reduced behavioral problems.
Surfboards are adapted to provide support, balance, and control with backrests, knee risers, or foot “keepers,” which enable those with a physical challenge to “ski surf.”
Sometimes coaching is all that’s needed, as when former pro surfer Dane Kealoha worked with Dara Fukuhara, who has muscular dystrophy. “As a child, I always dreamed of surfing, but never thought I could,” Fukuhara says. “I'm truly grateful for the gift AccesSurf has given me. Now, nothing is impossible.”
Ride a Wave Offers Free Life-Changing Day
In 1998, Danny Cortazzo, a former tandem surfing champion, founded Ride a Wave (RAW) to enable children with physical and developmental disabilities to experience the joys of surfing during a fun, safe day at the beach in Santa Cruz. RAW’s free activities include:
- Lifeguard demonstration and safety orientation
- Beach obstacle course
- Boogie boarding
- Tandem surfing
RAW has served 2,500 children from around the world and every US state. Its all-volunteer team puts safety first, fitting each sunscreen-slathered participant with wetsuits, life-vests, and helmets before hitting the water.
Surfing Therapy for the Autistic
Israel and Danielle Paskowitz founded Surfers Healing after seeing how their three-year old son Isaiah, who is autistic, responded to the ocean the first time Israel, a former competitive surfer, put him on the back of his surfboard. A quick lesson became a full day amid the waves. They began hosting free day camps in San Juan Capistrano, California, to give other autistic children access to this special kind of sensory therapy.
As parents watch from the beach, volunteers (each with 10+ years ocean experience) help campers don life vests, walk them out to their instructors, and position them on surfboards. Children comfortable in the ocean can receive one-on-one lessons to surf solo.
Surfing offers sport, recreation, and a stimulation of the senses that can expand one’s horizons. It’s an activity Alex Krauth recommends.
“Even though some people think they might not be good at it, they should just do it,” says Krauth. “All they need is the courage, strength, and optimism to try.”
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