Cold Water Kids
The following is based on a true story
It’s 5:30 a.m. and a man is staring out the window as a blizzard blankets New York in heavy drifts of white snow. Somewhere in the background he hears a televised weather report…
“It’s twenty degrees outside, but with the wind chill it’ll feel like thirteen,” the weatherman says, his crisp diction tinged with a hint of apology. “Unless it’s absolutely necessary, please avoid the roads today.”
A snow plow is grinding past the window when the man’s ten-year-old son shuffles up beside him. The boy is still sleepy, yawning while he gazes out at the snow.
“School’s cancelled,” the father says. “It’s a snow day.”
“All right!” the boy celebrates, suddenly fully awake.
“Want to check the waves?”
“Yes!”
This is how New York surfers are made.
The next time you’re walking in a winter wonderland, watching the local children hurl snowballs at one another, please keep in mind there’s also another kind of fun underway. Somewhere not too far off a few young boys and girls are sitting in their parents’ cars, holding their fingers in front of the heating vents until they’re warm enough to pull on a wetsuit. The children don’t know it yet, but these winter sessions will shape the course of their lives. Surfers who suffer the winds in winter and the flat spells of summer always seem to gain a special appreciation for the sport of surfing.
All of us at NYSEA were once boys and girls like this—the frozen few who learned early how to sacrifice for our goals both in and out of the water. We wanted to salute the new breed of Cold Water Kids that are currently coming of age around Long Island, so we put together the following profiles.
Click on the images below to find out more about these dedicated young surfers.
Stay tuned for more Cold Water Kids / Girls of NY Coming Next….
