Surfing with you ur kids

Ahhh, right into my wheelhouse!

Two sons, both grown now with two g-kids, one approaching grommet stage and the the lil one on deck! Pushed elder son into a thigh high wave on an 8'6" at Sebies back in '86 and he's been riding ever since! Wife freaked as her first son glided past her along on the glassy face and ran in immediately being swallowed up by the gully/drop-off 5' from the shoreline. Lost her Rx shades in the maternal attempt to "protect" him. Younger son came along 3 years later and after a year (his 3rd) on a boogie I gave my ancient 6'4' Fox and he began paddling on his own in smaller surf!

I've taken them to Cabo, PR and Hatty numerous times and as I have aged they have had to "back-off, my wave" because we continue to surf as a family to this day!

Suffice to say, some of my most cherished moments have been sharing the line-up with my sons.

 

When my daughter was a teen, I took her surfing, but she stopped going.
She came home one day and said, "Surfers are morons".
I was happy. "They are", I assured her.
She went on with her violin playing, and played all over the world.

 

Two boys, now 19 and 21, and a girl, now 14, about to turn 15. None of them surf.

Well... not that much, anyway...

You can't make someone like something... they either do or they don't. Does it bother me? A little... But that's my problem.

 

I don't want kids. At least not at this point in my life. That may change. Who knows. But if i do ever have kids....id try getting them surfing as early as possible. Somthing like DTK mentioned. That sounds awesome.

If they don't like surfing....there getting thrown in the trash

 

me and my son surfed a good bit until he graduated college and got a job and moved to the western shore...bummer but when he comes and visits, we surf...but mainly summer, he's not much into the colder water scene and never got super hooked. Have taken my daughter, but she never was interested...regardless, my entire family hangs on the beach whenever we are all available...Good times and miss my kids...daughter in her last year of college and living on campus, tho she is still very close by...time flies...too fast.

 

might be one of my favorite comments ever on here haha. i feel the same way bass.

 

that's pretty rad too though. is she in a symphony or does she tour with a band?

 

Surfing with my son (sophomore in HS) is my favorite thing to do. At first he hated it because I was over protective, overbearing and over coaching. Now we snake the **** out of each other. He calls me fat and old while I call him stupid and poor. He's great kid.

 

One son took to surfing, the other didn't. Best sessions are surfing with my son.
Introduced both sons to target and skeet shooting. The other son took to that. I enjoy going shooting with him. On his 21st birthday, he bought himself a 1911 .45 ACP.
All three of us run. Yesterday we ran a half marathon race in Williamsburg. It's great to do things together like that.

 

Both of my kids are too young. I'd love it if they take to surfing as much as I did, but I will never force them to like it. I will make sure to instill in them as much ocean-knowledge as possible (swimming, tides, assessing conditions, etc.)

 

I've been surfing with my nephews since they were like 8 or so. They're not really my nephews, one is the son and my best friend and the other is the son and my other best friend. They're family to me though, so I just introduce them to people as my nephews. They're 19 and 18 now. Their dad's were probably bigger influences and teachers in surfing, I just gave them some tips along the way. Had to take them to beginner spots early on, like Riddle Way in Manasquan or the cove in Cape May and it's 1 footers and even non-surfing beaches, just to ease them in before taking off the training wheels. They also rode body boards prior to this. They really both prefer a short board, as do I. One's dad is strictly a longboard man. They were able to surf the Inlet in Manasquan by about 10 or 11. We'd start putting them in there on more crowded days by the time they were 12. They were a little bit of a liability at the more ''Tough'' or ''Advanced'' breaks when they were real young and just starting out.

The one was a tiny bit overweight, although he carried it well. He's down to 190-195 now and it's helped his game a ton. Both his dad and his dad's younger brother are pretty damn good surfers, despite the fact his dad only uses strictly a longboard (just busting balls guys and I do it to him all the time! Haha) The other is very short, only about 5 foot 4 or so. He moves around pretty good, but he gets tossed off the board fairly easily in a big swell sometimes. We didn't really let them surf unattended in big swells or in conditions with rip currents until they were 16. The one who was a little bit overweight, got caught in one when he was like 11 and we had to rescue him and do our best lifeguard impersonation. We had to work with him on rip currents after that. We'd take him out in rip currents with no board and see if he could get himself out of them. We'd stay right with him and wouldn't let him get in real danger before having to do get him out of one.

There's a lot of young kids who surf here, and a lot of parent surfers have gotten their kids out in the water at a young age. The high school even has a surfing team here. One of my buddy's has a daughter on the surf team.

 

I told my kids that surfing is basically a waste of time and energy in NJ. It's cold, fickle, and we get maybe 5 world class days a year. I have given-up trying to teach them. If they want to learn, I got a garage full of gear and patience to teach them the basics. Otherwise, I'd rather they stick with piano and other conventional sports. Plus, most surfers are self absorbed dirt bags, and I don't want them mingling with such trash. LOL.

 

She is a university professor now. Although all the Boston and NH newspapers had pegged her a "prodigy" early in life, she gave up a solo career in music to pursue academics. She found that limiting a conversation to "thousand ways to play a musical note" was a dead end, intellectually speaking. She takes after her mom; I am the moron in the family.
She still plays for fun with friends.

 

Three children. Each have been riding waves since they were toddlers. Ages 17, 15 and 12 now.

17 year old



15 year old



12 year old

 

I'm steering the surfing ship with my kids now. They're 5 & 3 and love the beach. I've pushed them on the longboard since before they could walk but I think this summer they're going to be comfortable enough in the water to ride a wave. My son loves his boogey board and my daughter can "pop up" when I push her on the skateboard. I think she'll actually get up before my son because she has more of a desire to please and do what her brother can do too.

There's a little skate park on Folly we call the pirate park. I've been taking them there on their bikes and I ride the carver. It's great seeing them be brave and bomb the ramps. I was nervous about the "dangerous teenagers" but they were very welcoming to my kids. My daughter did pick up a word that sounded very similar to fugget. I told her the big kids could say that but she wasn't allowed.

 

Different approach to this story. I was involved with all my kids in different sports; coaching, cheering participating... My eldest son was a pretty highly recruited track athlete. He decided on UNCW because he always wanted to surf...
Needless I say more... Track scholarship went bye bye because he would rather surf than go to class or practice. He would only call me to tell me about a great water session, his first hand drag, his first barrel...
Then my next eldest son got interested in surfing, so the two boys started hanging out together more. I got bored of taking pictures on the beach and bought a board to join them...
They are the WORLD'S WORST teachers! Their advise: "Paddle and stand up!" Their early words of encouragement: "Go over there. You look like a dying sea turtle."
In spite of their worst efforts, I continued surfing and can now hold my own with them. I have fun snaking them on the rare occasion I can actually do that!

 

Great threade...
My daughter will be turning 4 this summer (son will be 2). Both kids absolutely love the water and can't get enough of it! We take them to the bay a lot during the summer, mostly because we live less than a mile from there, and it's a bit lower key than the sh!t show that's the oceanfront. Have been thinking about taking them to the real beach, sticking her in a pdf and sitting her on the nose of my lb and going out on a knee to thigh sorta day. How did you other dads go about it? At what age did you take them out and actually surf with them? Looking for some ideas and/or pointers

 

We got our son a bodyboarder which he rode exclusively until last year. Started out cherry picking the right days then started pushing him. I would say that if I could change one aspect it would be to have had more patience and let it happen naturally.

 

me and my daughter bodyboard..I taught her to surf two years ago but she would rather bodyboard and opposite of all of us she doesn't like it when the waves get bigger(tropical,hurricane etc). I would say as a parent the time spent with them out there is priceless...however I do sometimes think as a parent how I'd feel if they got hurt by a shark etc...