 |
| © Jurgen Netto / Surfen op Gevoel |
Surfing the cold waters of the North Sea started in the small beach town of Zandvoort for me. In 2011 two guys I surfed with started
First Wave Surfschool there and they have been growing ever since. A few weeks back I got a text message from Erik, one of the owners. The message was very brief: "Would you like to teach blind people to surf" it said. I texted back, briefly enough: "Sure, why not?".
After a more clarifying phone call; the whole thing became more clear. Erik's brother, Martijn, suffers from a disease that reduces his eyesight to almost 5%, which makes him officially handicapped. This doesn't stop Martijn to do basically everything he wants, including getting some surfing lessons. Some of Martijn's friends from a supporting organization for blind people told him they would like some surfing lessons too. After sending a few emails, there where over 25 applicants already. This required some serious and professional action...and that's where I came in.
 |
| Rhodo teaching Niels a slackline class © Jurgen Netto / Surfen op Gevoel |
First, we needed a decent budget and some sponsoring. As most of (young) blind people have only a small allowance and usually can not work, we needed to reduce the price for them to be able to join. With help from the
HSA (Holland Surfing Association) Ripstar,
Beachbar Skyline and Surffest we managed to keep the entrance fee low, while still being able to hire some professional surf teachers and cover all the other costs. Next, we needed a decent program. We wanted to offer not only a surfing lesson but also a little introduction to the beach lifestyle. With the help of friend Rhodo, an experienced yogi and slackline instructor, we came up with the idea to have half of the group surfing, and half of the group get a slackline and indoboard clinic. After a few phone calls, we found three more surfing instructors, and a few volunteers from ALO (sport academy) to assist. Even the crew of the Surfproject were there for some support on the shore.
Surfing by Feeling was born and everything was in place to give the 8 selected participants a day to remember!
 |
| My natural talent Debby © Jurgen Netto / Surfen op Gevoel |
The forecast was rain, but on Sunday 26th of June I woke up to a small sun trying to peek trough the clouds. Once I got off the train and walked on the beach, the sun was shining properly and after setting up the activity area, placing the beach flags and hanging the banner with our sponsors a guide dog announced the first participant of the day. Soon everyone had arrived and after a nice cup of coffee and some introduction talk the group was divided in two and the fun could start. My first student was Debby, who was almost completely blind. Very soon it became very clear that this wasn't an obstacle in any way. With complete trust, a superb body consciousness and a great hearing, Debby was soon catching waves and within moments she asked me to call her into bigger waves. Even teaching her to stand up was easy and in only 1 hour of teaching, Debby stood up on her first waves. In the end, I didn't even have to tell her anymore how deep to go into the water, and she could even hear the waves coming and managed to catch some of her own.
 |
| Angeliek on one of her first attempts © Jurgen Netto / Surfen op Gevoel |
My second student of the day was Angeliek, an energetic 27 year old, who was full of confidence. So much that she even booked a full surfing weekend for the next week, completely convinced she would nail the basics today. And she wasn't wrong. After only 10 minutes of prone surfing, she asked me impatiently when I would tell her how to stand up on the board. And so I told her, and so she did it and nailed it indeed after only a few try outs. After 20 minutes it became clear I was just there to hoot and cheer, because Angeliek was surfing independently.
 |
| Teacher David and student Marko © Jurgen Netto / Surfen op Gevoel |
Needless to say, the other participants did equally well and together with instructors David, Rens and Niels they all managed to stand up and surf some waves. Everyone had a wonderful time and all of us were quite amazed at how well the day went and that teaching blind people to surf turned out to be so easy! I am very happy I could contribute to organizing this project, so short after expressing the wish to help more special needs people to surf! This was an awesome try-out for Surfing by Feeling (in Dutch: Surfen op Gevoel) and I can't wait for the next edition that will be held in September hopefully.
No comments
Post a Comment