Our Kids Surfing in Maui’sTherapeutic Playground
“A surfboard is better than a boyfriend. No matter what happens, my surfboard will always be there for me.” This fiery redhead in my surfing lesson just nailed it. This is not to say that there aren’t any loyal boyfriends out there. Yet she brings up an important lesson that I teach the girls who come through my Hawaii surf camp program. We cannot depend on others to make us feel happy, beautiful, or complete. This can only come from within. Surfing and other outdoor activities can be a vehicle to tap the limitless supply of joy within us.
Through the tumultuous seas of adolescence, a time when brain chemistry, hormones, peer pressure, and parental expectations can be like a surging tsunami, surfing the soothing west side waves can be the ultimate remedy for our teenagers. Surfing is rich with metaphors and life lessons. When you wipe-out you always get back on your board and paddle out: never give up in life! Lessons in balance, agility, grace, humility, stamina, strength, and courage are all life lessons that I’ve learned from surfing Maui’s waves since I was eight years old. Let me give you some examples of what I’ve witnessed in the last ten years as an experiential educator. And why I think Maui’s youth and beyond so desperately need more opportunities for growth through time in nature, time away from the stressors in their daily lives. As many teachers can attest, students tend to teach us more than we teach them.
Her name was Lila Roo. Some of you Northshore Maui chargers or daily Haiku commuters know who I’m talking about. She’s the one that hitchhiked with her long board and platform slippers to Ho’okipa rain or shine and her small 5′2 frame charged double overhead waves at “Middles”. But what many of you don’t know, was that Lila could barely sit on her long board only 4 years prior. Not only did she come from a broken family, but her back was also broken. Well not exactly, she had scoliosis.
I witnessed the most dramatic transformation in Lila, as her relentless drive to become a better surfer gained momentum each year at our surf camps. That tsunami of adolescent angst welled up through her and each winter she unleashed it’s fury in the ocean.
Constantly testing her limits in those powerful north shore waves, Lila gave me a dose of what it’s like to be a protective parent. “Lila, you really should go in…it’s getting too big for you out here.” I said this every time I saw her out. But like a diamond being formed, she rose to the challenges on the water and faced her life on land with a poised sense of confidence and competence. Lila graduated valedictorian from King Kekaulike High school and received a scholarship to Reed College, in Oregon.
The other day I ran into an old Boys and Girls Club member, Alex. I asked him how his sister was doing. She participated in my Wednesday’s Girls Club, an experiential curriculum that I created to give the girls healthy coping skills. My heart sank, when Alex told me that his sister was pregnant. She’s only 14 and plans to have the baby. I immediately felt like I failed her, my curriculum didn’t give her tools. Did I overlook talking about condoms? I remembered that my friend at the Maui Aids Foundation came to couple of our meetings and discussed condoms. I reminded myself that I did all I could, but my head was whirling all weekend from that news.
Last spring a desperate mom who wanted to sign up her fourteen year old for weekly surfing lessons approached me. “We’ve tried everything to steer her away from drugs and now she’s been suspended from Baldwin. I’ve heard of your program and I think surfing lessons will help her.” I told her that I wasn’t a counselor, but I could be a spoke in the wheel to her recovery. The first couple weeks of lessons, she was hardened like a stone and was just like the main character in the movie “Thirteen”. She was bone thin, pale, pierced, and every other word out of her mouth was profanity. In the backdrop of those majestic West Maui Mountains on our long boards, I could not believe the horrific stories of her sexuality and drug abuse at the ripe age of fourteen. How did a fourteen year old from a good family get mixed up with drugs like ice?
Something amazing began to happen. Paddling out one morning, she laid her head down on her board and began to weep like a baby. I paddled over to her to see what was wrong. She had no words. She tried to cover up that she was crying, so I just left her be. Like the warm embrace of a mother, I knew Maui’s warm ocean was breaking down her walls and allowing her to cry, to heal.
I am not advocating that surfing is the end all cure all for the woes of our teenagers. I’ve taught kids that were absolutely miserable on a surfboard. However, programs with an experiential element, that is, with an outdoor or hands-on component can be vital to the physical, emotional, and spiritual growth of our teenagers. It breaks my heart to hear stories of fourteen year old girls getting pregnant or strung out on ice, when we live in one of the most beautiful islands on the planet. It also breaks my heart to hear that many programs and school counselors for our youth are suffering budget cuts. Without programs like Upward Bound, Kuina, Maui Hero Project, Boys and Girls Club of Maui, and the YMCA, our keiki are more vulnerable than ever to issues like our growing ice epidemic. So please donate to any of these programs before tax time! Or better yet, take a keiki in your life surfing. Show them that playing in Maui’s paradise is the best high in ones life!
About the author
Dustin Ashley Tester, founder of Maui Surfer Girls. Dustin has worked for Voyager Outward Bound School, Camp Green Cove, Chadwick, and developed nine years of summer camp programming in Hawaii. To learn more about her nationally recognized camp programs, check out our surf camp for girls.Tags: experiential education, Hawaii surf camps, summer camp programs, surf therapy, wilderness therapy