Through surfing, there are many valuable lessons children can learn. Surfing can teach us all a great deal about nature, physical fitness, and overcoming challenges. Therefore, we believe that children have much to gain by spending some time on top of a surfboard.
BELOW WE’VE LISTED A FEW REASONS EXPLAINING WHY EVERY CHILD OR TEEN SHOULD GET INVOLVED IN SURFING. EVEN IT’S JUST FOR A FEW DAYS:
1. IMPROVE SWIMMING ABILITIES
Most people would probably say that they know how to swim. However, there’s a difference between knowing how to swim and feeling confident while you’re in the water. Surfing is an excellent way for children (and adults) to build their water confidence.
While surfing, kids will develop a better feel for navigating water and waves, and this will ultimately translate into better performance while swimming in the ocean or a pool.
2. TEACHES BALANCE AND COORDINATION
When you’re new to surfing, it feels like the ultimate balancing act. This is why it’s the perfect opportunity for children to help develop their coordination. Kids and teenagers are still refining their motor skills, so surfing is a great environment to put their coordination to the test and help them improve their balance.
3. COMMUNE WITH NATURE
There are a lot of ways to get in touch with nature (hikes, runs, gardening, etc.), but for lovers of the ocean, there is something special about being out in the waves. When you’re out surfing, it’s just you, the ocean, and your board. If you want your child to develop an appreciationfor nature, surfing is an easy way to immerse them (literally) in the outdoors.
Plus, you don’t have to surf for very long before you’ve spotted a variety of fish, birds, dolphins, and other sea life. For animal lovers, spotting sea creatures is often a bonus.
4. CONFIDENCE BUILDER
If you’re brand new to surfing, paddling yourself out into crashing waves can be somewhat daunting at first. A little bit of trepidation before facing the ocean is natural, as is a little bit of anxiety before most of the significant events in our lives. After a little practice, and becoming more comfortable with the ocean, kids often quickly overcome their initial fears. Therefore, we argue that surfing can be a useful tool for teaching kids to overcome little worries and anxieties, and this might boost their confidence for their day-to-day life.
As a bonus, surfing looks cool. It’s hard not to feel relaxed and confident after a good day of surfing.
5. INSTILL VALUES OF CONSERVATION
Surfers are generally believers in nature conservation. The reason is that they spend an extended period of their time enjoying nature and because surfers develop an appreciation for how fragile marine ecosystems can be. If your child becomes a surfer, they might feel more invested in beaches and other public lands.
6. INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
For children and teens that aren’t interested in traditional team sports, surfing offers an awesome way for kids to be physical activity. For athletes that interested in being part of a team environment, but might be uninterested in traditional competitive environments, surfing is a great alternative. In surfing, kids can partake in a friendly team environment, but they may also choose to appreciate the ocean on their own.
7. GREAT EXERCISE
This one seems obvious, but we felt the need to point it out anyways. Surfing is a fantastic full body exercise that develops physical strength as well as aerobic fitness. If your child needs to cross-train for another sport, or maybe doesn’t otherwise have any interest in exercising, surfing can be a fun way to develop peak physical fitness.
8. TENACITY
It’s often said that “something worth doing, is worth doing well.” But we’d like to point out that there are usually a lot of failures involved before you can ever do something well. In surfing, like so many other things, failures are expected. Surfing teaches tenacity, and it shows children how to learn from their failures.
9. PATIENCE
The best things in life often come slowly, and that principle remains true in surfing. Through surfing, there are many ways to learn patience. Surfing requires children to wait for high waves, deal with rough currents, and meticulously care for their boards. There, surfing is an environment that inherently teaches patience or self-discipline to a child that hasn’t otherwise developed it yet.
10. LIFE IS A WAVE
There are many challenges to overcome in life. Getting crushed by a wave isn’t much different than getting broken by some of the other struggles we all eventually encounter.
Surfing helps develop the mental fortitude necessary to overcome many of the challenges we all have to face. By learning to remain calm in the midst of a surfing wipeout, kids become better equipped to defeat the other wipeouts they will confront.
Surfing teaches kids that, no matter how fierce the challenge is, you have to dig deep and keep swimming.