Healing on the Waves

Dozens of children with autism and their families converged Saturday at Surfrider Beach for what has become an annual tradition that combines surfing, courage and awareness.

Surfers Healing, a surf camp for children with autism, is run by former pro surfer Izzy Paskowitz and his family. For more than a decade, it has provided an opportunity for children with autism to experience what it is like to surf and let their parents and families witness the joy, and sometimes the frustration, of the experience

Paskowitz learned how beneficial surfing can be for a child with autism when he started taking his son Isaiah out on the waves. Now 20, Isaiah still goes to the beach and rides the waves from time to time.

"The hard part is having our children do something different, especially surfing," Paskowitz said. "Being on your own in a dangerous situation, meaning surfing does have its percentages of danger. It's an extreme sport. I feel the same way with my son. Isaiah can't really do a lot of things. We'll shoot a basketball kind of one on one, but he doesn't do group sports. This is something with the water they can participate in because we're really not asking them to do something they can't do."

He continued, "Not only can they do it, because it's really the ride, we're not asking the kids to do a regular surf lesson. It's all about these young guys and making them, enticing them to do something like surfing. It's something I believe that they really need."

Surfers Healing visits places throughout the world. But Surfrider is the only stop in Los Angeles County. Paskowitz said this is because the parents can get up close at Surfrider to see the children in the ocean from the beach. Art Tan, one of the more experienced volunteers with Surfers Healing, added that Surfrider provides a venue that has no parallel in the world.

"A big reason that we chose Malibu and Surfrider is not only is it an iconic place in terms of surfing, it's a great venue for the parents for them to be able to see their kids on a stage like that," Tan said.

Paskowitz said his years of surfing professionally provided him with the network to bring together some of the best people in the world to work with the children who attend the camp.

"I think the building blocks of my life, being a pro surfer, traveling around the world, globetrotting around the U.S. and the world at different surf spots, set up a situation where I could call on some of the best, experienced water people, professional short boarders and long boarders," Paskowitz said. "I always have to promise the parents that it's going to be the safest situation with the greatest guys in the water."

Look for pictures and a video from Saturday’s camp on Malibu Patch soon.

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