The Boys Start Surfing – Finally!
These are some videos of my boys and friends surfing at Baby Queens here on Oahu, Hawaii. Why is this important to me? Well, if you’ve been coming to this site over the past years, you’ll notice that there were videos of me and my oldest son at 4 or 5 years old doing the SUP thing and then there was nothing between then and now. That’s because my boys refused to go surfing with me until early August 2011. My oldest boy is now 8.5 years old and #2 is 6 years old. It’s been a long time coming. In fact, I was wondering if they would ever want to go surfing or just make me land locked while they play baseball and soccer.
Part 1: Buddy
(click thumbnail to launch video)
Part 2: Koko
(click thumbnail to launch video)
Part 3: Buddy, Koko and friends
(click thumbnail to launch video)
The gap came as a result of me getting a bit over zealous and taking them in waves too big for their liking. We were at Pua’ena Point on the North Shore and I had my oldest son on the front of my 11′6″ SUP when I decided to go out a little further and catch something more interesting. Well, the wave was a bit too big and I was having a hard time making the turn to avoid the upcoming rock on the inside so I sat on the tail and grabbed the board to stop it. Yes, I know it’s a kook move but it was in the heat of the moment. The board stopped but my son didn’t. He had a life jacket on and flew off the front like a cannon ball coming out of a cannon. It wasn’t that bad but he did swallow some water and to a 4 or 5 year old, he must have had visions of drowning. I bought him some shave ice to help ease his pain but that was the last time he went with me. My second boy just followed the example of my oldest and decided he didn’t want to go anymore either.
From all the guys I spoke with that have older kids and similar experiences (and there’s a lot of them), they said their kids ended up getting into surfing between 8 to 10 years old and never looked back. This is the age I’ve been waiting for. We ended up going to Baby Queens and I pushed them on waves for a couple hours and they had a blast. It was the most fun I’ve had in the water in a long time. They liked it so much that we surfed almost a week straight. It would have been longer but the beach had contests and things going on so we didn’t want to deal with the crowd.
The waves at Baby Queens move slow, don’t pound the kids if they fall and during low tide they can stand up in sand if they fall and need to stand up. The kids can paddle back out with no problem. Baby Queens is obviously not a secret spot. There are concession stands set up on the beach to rent surfboards, SUP’s, bodyboards, etc and everyone and their brother is either taking or teaching a lesson. If you want to practice there, you’ll also get a good lesson in crowd management. The area is SUPER crowded. People run into each other all the time but in the end everyone is friendly and having a good time. I’m looking forward to my boys improving so we can go to other breaks that aren’t so crowded but this summer was a great start (or restart).
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