Sunday, May 23, 2010

Shout Out to "Ride A Wave!"

I think I've posted in the past about Surfer's Healing, a group of professional surfers who travel around the country and take kids with Autism out surfing for a day.  Our kids did this 4 years ago, when LG was (almost) 5 and WG was 2 1/2.  (She was so small that when they put the life jacket on her she fell over!)
Well, there's another group called Ride A Wave that does something similar, but they also throw in boogie boards and kayaks.  And yesterday WG, through her school, got to participate. So at 8:45 AM we packed WG, LG, my S-I-L, my M-I-L, and a bunch of towels, snacks, bottles of water, etc. into the van and drove for an hour down to Snata Cruz. (Hubby couldn't come because he was taking the California firefighters skills test, in which he had 10.5 minutes to drag a 160 pond person a certain number of feet, break through a wall with a sledghammer, and a bunch of other stuff while wearing a 50-pound weighted vest.  He also had to walk up and down stairs for 3 minutes with an additional 15 pounds added (this was within the 10.5 minutes). And...
HE PASSED!!!!!!   With 1.5 minutes to spare!!!!!!!
Meanwhile, back at the beach, I stayed with WG and her Beach Buddy while S-I-L and M-I-L hung out with LG.  He was LOVING IT!!!! He ran around, played in the (Freezin' Freakin' Cold!) water, and even played with some other kids a bit!
And WG? Well, she was a PRO!!!!!! She put her her wetsuit, life jacket and helmet on with no complaints (OK, yes, we put them on her), went immediately into the FFC (see above) water, and rode the boogie board (with help) like Lard Hamilton!  Then, after playing in the wet sand for a bit, she went into the ocean kayak and LOVED IT!!!! (The fellow who went with her said "She was so happy!  It made my day!"  Gotta love THAT!)
By then it was lunchtime, so we peeled off the top off her wetsuit so she could warm up.  A couple of her teachers were there, so they came by to hang out and admire her pink polka dot bikini.  She ate pizza (provided by the RAW folks), played in the sand, and then it was time to go.  We drove home, showed hubby the pictures and movies we took, bathed the kids, and hung out for the rest of the day, which included a brand new episode of "Doctor Who," as well as some Chinese take-out.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Beautiful Saturday!
Maybe I can get hubby to help me post some of the pics here.
And I just wan to say THANK YOU to all the folks at Ride A Wave!  What you do is AMAZING!

3 comments:

Charlotte said...

Awww! I bet your kids were ADORABLE out there! Sounds like a great group and congrats to your hubs!! So is he going to be firefighter now? Wow.

azusmom said...

Sorry Charlotte, having trouble posting your comment here!

azusmom said...

OK, there it is, lol!
Hubby is hoping to be a paramedic with a fire company. (Which makes me feel better; the idea of him running into burning buildings on a regular basis makes me a tad bit anxious, lol!)