What if riding waves meant changing the world? For twenty years it has for children living with autism. The expert volunteers at Surfers Healing take them for tandem rides that are more than exciting. They are therapeutic, helping break down the barriers that define an autistic child’s life.
Former world longboard champion and Hobie rider Israel ‘Izzy’ Paskowitz founded the non-profit after discovering the healing power of water for his son Isiah. Like nothing else, riding waves calmed Isiah, alleviating the meltdowns caused by sensory overload.
Annually, Surfers Healing is on pace to take more than 5,000 autistic children surfing. We caught up with Izzy at a Surfers Healing camp at Doheny State Beach, California:
Where we started, where we came from, it blows my mind. I don’t think the parents would let us fail.
Surfing is nothing less than the greatest behavioral therapy for children with autism. It does everything at once without being artificial. You have to stay midline and centered on the surfboard.
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There’s the taste of the water, the feel of it surrounding you, the air blowing on you, the roll and the crashing sounds of the waves, the sun.
It’s healthy. It develops synapses. If it didn’t work we wouldn’t be doing this for 20 years.
The show is riding the waves, it’s surfing, a cool sport that siblings and other kids can look up to. Those autistic kids look pretty cool surfing with those guys. Really the water is the magic factor.
Our volunteers are compassionate, aggressive, swashbuckling pirate surfers. They are the greatest autism specialists when it comes to grabbing a child that looks to an outsider like he doesn’t want to go surfing.
The autistic kids all have cognitive ability but don’t have expressive language. How do you know that that anxious sound means yes or no? There’s only one way, out in the water. I’m Capt. Hook and you’re on the plank. The parents are comfortable allowing us to push it to that level.
The guys are not mellow. They’re ripping. The screaming and anxiety washes away. It melts into joy, happiness, confidence.
Parents getting to see their children doing something incredibly cool is very emotional. They cry and thank everybody. I love my guys (the volunteers), they don’t need nor want any thanks. They know it’s going to be rewarding but you can’t put it into words. It’s very difficult, emotional and physical. When a volunteer hands a child back to the parent, he just gets it.
I love that. I love being part of a team where everyone is doing it for the right reason. We love doing this from our hearts and our souls.
Come see what we do. We’re one big family. It helps the cause, helps raise awareness of autism. Or go to the website and sign up to be a volunteer. That would be incredible. We can never have enough good people. We’re looking for people for the next 20 years.
