ReSurf to host all-day “Surf-a-Thon” fundraiser

Non-profit mentors kids though surfing

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For ReSurf co-founder Oran Bendelstein, surfing can be more than just a sport.

“I’ve been a surfer my entire life; there’s so much I’ve benefited from surfing,” Bendelstein said. “It gave me peace of mind and the tools to live my life.”

Bendelstein and his friend, Mike Urra, founded the ReSurf organization two years ago, a non-profit organization with the goal of mentoring underprivileged kids through surfing. It has already built a surf center in the Middle East, helped the Long Beach High School surf team, and has many more projects planned for the coming year, in Jamaica, Rockaway and California.

This Sunday, Aug. 31, the group will host an all-day “surf-a-thon” and beach festival at National beach. The event, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., will help ReSurf raise funds for its upcoming projects. The surf-a-thon is not so much a competition, he said, but a fun event that anyone can compete in. There will be a prize awarded, but not for the best surfer, but for the most “stoked” kid out on the water. Skudin Surf will be giving free surf lessons all day. Local stores and artists are also helping out. Salvation Tattoo, of Oceanside, will be doing face painting and spray art. There will be a live surf art demonstration, a surfboard ding repair workshop, and yoga, Zumba and martial arts classes. Prizes will be raffled off. ReSurf will also be collected used surfboard and other donations.

Bendelstein feels that surfing can teach kids important life lessons, such as getting back up and staying positive after you wipe out. He said that many of the kids who they work with think the world is against them, and he wants to show them the world outside of their “bubble” and help them “ride the waves of life.”

“The ultimate goal is creating positivity and creating and atmosphere for underprivileged kids to give them the tools to lead a positive and productive life,” Bendelstein said.

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