For the fourth year in a row we went to Europe to be surf instructors and teach hundreds of eager groms how to surf with the O’neill Surf Academy. This year the schedule included four stops in Holland starting with Zandvoort, then Scheveningen, Domburg and Bergen aan Zee and then Biarritz, France.
Once again for the third year, the Out of Bounds program was included in our Surf Academy stops in Holland and France. In Scheveningen, Holland we taught a group of students with varying degrees of visual impairment. In Biarritz, France we taught students with autism. The days of the Out of Bounds program are really so special, it is almost hard to put into words all the feelings, fun and emotions felt by everyone. As surf instructors we are the ones passing on the gift of surfing to someone else, but it is actually the other way around. The kids taught us much more than we ever bargained for. From the Out of Bounds program we have learned that anything is possible, to never take no for an answer, to really experience the world in all that it has to offer, and how the ocean can connect us all. We truly hope that all the kids we taught on these days will remember their first surfing experience, because we will never forget what a great time we had teaching and learning from these extraordinary kids.
Surfing is a gift and we feel so lucky to have had the opportunity pass it forward to so many kids over these past years. Our Mom and Dad were our surf instructors back when we were little and now we can appreciate all the work that goes into teaching kids to surf as well as how much gratification there is in it. The one moment in surfing that is universal in all languages and countries is that stoked smile that everyone gets after their first wave. Every time we see that smile on a child’s face, it reminds us of our first waves and how that child will now be hooked to surfing for life.
And here is a video of the Surf Academy Out of Bounds program from last year in Belgium where we got to teach a very sweet girl and now friend named Mei Lan
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