I surf therefore I am

I started surfing this Summer.  It was by accident.  Rian was in a surf camp called “Surf to Heal“and I was in the water helping the volunteers.  They were superb and made it a thrilling experience for Rian and the other autistic kids who were there.  They had special boards that were extra big with handstraps which made it easy for Rian to  pull himself up and hang on.

We have a big old board that we bought for Ultan a few years ago which has  barely been used. I brought Rian to Streedagh and tried to get him to surf on it but he was very frustrated as it didn’t have the handstraps.  However he wouldn’t let me try so I played with an old boogie board instead.

One fine day when nobody was around I hit for Streedagh with the big yellow board and hauled it into the water. I faced it into the waves and started to paddle.  As I bounced over the first wave and felt the surf spray into my face I hit nirvana, and this was only paddling.

There have been lots of fun days since. Housework was abandoned for August and lots of September. The water is warm even if the air isn’t and on windy days when I cannot lift the big yellow board on or off the car I just go with the beautiful blue boogie board Cesar bought me.

Someday I’ll stand up or even kneel but there’s no hurry. For now I’ll just have fun in the beautiful waves of Streedagh.

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