Autism Vox

The Surfing Challenge

by Kristina Chew, PhD on August 15th, 2007

The August 14th Jersey Journal tells about how 30 surfers left from Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City yesterday to join the Surfers’ Environmental Alliance (SEA) 28-Mile Paddle. I work in Jersey City but am not there today as we are down by the ocean and, at 1pm today, Charlie went to surf camp (more photos here).

It was a camp for kids Charlie’s age and I felt nervous as we stepped into the surf store and paid the fee. We were told to go to a deck behind the store and found a dozen children, one in a wetsuit and all in rashguards, listening to the instructor explaining about beach safety (always bring water, the buddy system—-never swim alone!), thunderstorms, sharks, sting rays. Charlie sat beside me and said “I need break” every few minutes and I directed him to get up and walk around a bit, then sit back down.

Then it was time to get a board and go to the beach. The instructor selected a blue 7-8 foot board for Charlie. While Jim rushed back to the beachhouse to get his swim sunglasses, Charlie and I attempted to carry the board to the beach. I have to say “attempted” because anyone who saw the two of us with the board slipping out of our hands and Charlie not sure what I meant by “bottom” would have witnessed a rather pathetic comedy scene or at least me sighing over yet another moment of the “why in the world did I get myself into this” sort?

Fortunately, the instructor himself appeared and carried the board. Jim and I had already mentioned that Charlie has autism and the instructor asked me if there was anything in particular that might help Charlie; I mentioned speaking clearly and simply and directly, and that Charlie is listening, it just might take him a bit longer to process all the information. “What about I do something and he has to follow?” Asked the instructor. “That’s great,” I said. “So he is listening but sometimes he doesn’t look like he is, is that it?” “Exactly,” I said. The instructor, whose nickname was Cookie, nodded.

It was a fortuitous start to three amazing hours.

Jim got in the ocean with Charlie and I stayed on the sand, and we all learned. Another instructor showed Charlieus how to rinse the sand from the board and wax it, and then, the board strapped to his right ankle, out went Charlie. I figured he would see the surfboard as a king-size boogie board and at first he held it that way. Then I could see him lying down on the board and—as the instructor paddled enthusiastically, and Jim too—-Charlie did the same and was able to turn himself and the board back and forth in the waves. He got a couple of long rides in, his face lit up by a sunshine-bright smile; when the board hit the sand, Charlie stood up and started to run back in to swim. “Carry your board!” I called and picked it up, or did my best too, while showing Charlie to place his hands on the top and bottom (and it was slippery with salt water) and aim all 7-8 feet of surfboard back into the waves. And back out he went, paddling some, and with Jim coming out to tow him in.

During a break, we worked on teaching Charlie how to go from lying down on the board to standing with me modeling this on another board (the instructor said, you can practice this at home, just use a towel—got an old ironing board?). Charlie was completely blasé about having such a large object attached to his right ankle and swam as he always does, diving into the bottom of waves and swimming from side to side. “He’s swimming, he’s swimming!” the instructor called out excitedly. He told Jim that he couldn’t get over Charlie’s persistence—”lots of kids just cry”—-Charlie calmly and cooly resurfaced after every wipe out, towing the board with him, and gamely got back on. And on, and on: There’s always one more wave.

At a quarter to 4pm, Charlie held the board towards the nose and helped Jim carry it to the surf shop. Some of the boys were rinsing themselves off with a water hose and the one holding the hose occasionally splashed someone in the torso, including Charlie. They all laughed.

“Private lesson next week,” Jim and I agreed.

Charlie, as I’ve written, is not mainstreamed; he is in a self-contained autism classroom with a 1:1 teacher to student ratio. But put him in an environment where he is far from disabled—-Charlie was probably the best swimmer of all the kids at surf camp today—and how could he not be included? Give Charlie a challenge and who knows how far he’ll go.

Maybe someday Charlie will be himself swimming off from Liberty Landing Marina and all around Manhattan.

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POSTED IN: Charlisms, Education, New Jersey, Sports, Water