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Mostly Cloudy Waves of accomplishment
Surfer’s Way teaches kids with special needs how to surf, and more
“You can’t put a price on a kid’s smile when they’re grinning from ear to ear,” said Terri Patton as she watched her son, Mark, 13, ride his very first wave. “You’d pay a million bucks but it still wouldn’t be enough.”
On July 13, the beach on Riverside Boulevard was bustling with families from across Long Island who turned out for the annual Surfer’s Way outing, part of a series of surfing events that the Long Beach-based not-for-profit organization said helps children with special needs.
During the first of three surfing events this season, more than 200 kids gathered last Wednesday to watch their children glide across the ocean, many of them beaming as they rode a cresting wave.
For the past three years, Surfer’s Way founder and certified surf instructor Elliot Zuckerman and his staff of over 45 volunteers have worked to provide kids who are diagnosed with various physical and communicative disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and autism, with a fun and exhilarating experience that defies their seeming limitations.
“I started Surfer’s Way to give back to kids with special needs, to give back to kids that under any other circumstance would never go surfing,” said Zuckerman, who has worked with children with special needs for 30 years. “It’s something that I’ve been doing my whole life, something that I love to do and it’s just a passion of mine to take kids with special needs surfing.”
Through the generous donations of local families and corporate sponsors, the members of Surfer’s Way organize these surf outings to teach kids with special needs how to ride the waves and, in turn, discover their true potential.
“I hope [my sons] will learn not to be afraid of the water,” said Kathy Spataro, who has attended these events for the past three years with her two sons, Jonathan, 10, and Joseph, 14. “It’s something to experience and that’s apart of life. You’ve got to experience something at least once in your life.”
To help these first-time surfers overcome their fear of the water, Zuckerman and his volunteers have developed special training methods so that they may effectively communicate with special needs children and guide them through the water.
