It took our son quite a while to become a surfer. We were actually a little concerned as we have been professional surfers since we were teenagers and thought for sure he would jump on board with us. The best thing to do which we learn the hard way is to really just encourage your kids where they’re at. Our minds can get so wrapped up around what we want our kids to be- star ball player, professional dancer or stand out surfer in our case. Pushing them never works and for us it back fired until we just let him BE.
For the longest time, he just liked to swim, playing in the Shorebreak, while his friends surfed. Then he graduated to a boogie board (which was also in our minds a tiny setback as he wasn’t standing up?) but then all of a sudden it became clear that he wanted to be surfing on his own board begging us to take him out on one.
It was a great learning experience for us as parents to just meet him where he was at and encourage him along his journey. Now we can’t get him out of the water until after dark, he wants to travel all over the world and make sure he has all of the surfboards with him, and pushes his little sister into small waves with the biggest smile on his face. Priceless.
