One Perfect Day Thanks to Surfers Healing

Last month my oldest son participated in the Surfers Healing Camp on Kuhio Beach in Waikiki.

Surfers Healing was founded by husband and wife Israel (Izzy) and Danielle Paskowitz.

I first found out about the Paskowitz family from watching their show The Swell Life on OWN.  Their son, Isaiah, was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and after discovering the positive impact surfing had on him, Izzy and Danielle started surf camps so other kids with autistic spectrum disorders could discover the joys of surfing the ocean.

This was my oldest son's second time participating in the camp.

Although it was a cloudy and windy day, that didn't stop the many volunteers from showing up in order to give kids on the spectrum an opportunity to surf.

Makani was the surfer who took my son out to surf. 

I have no idea how my son reacted while Makani took him out into the deep ocean to catch some waves - all I know is when he returned about 20 minutes later, he gave Makani a hug on his own and said "thank you for taking me surfing."

It seemed like he had a great time despite how cold the water was (my son was shivering!).  And Makani was awesome - as were the other surfers.  They were so patient and eagerly took out every single kid.  It was amazing to watch.

I saw so many other kids return to the shore smiling, while volunteers cheered for them and gave them high fives.

We were fortunate to also have met Izzy.  I thanked him for what he was doing for all of the kids, and he said "the pleasure was all mine," and on Twitter he replied "thank you for sharing your son."

A great big mahalo to Izzy, Danielle, the volunteers, sponsors - everyone who makes Surfers Healing possible to create that "One Perfect Day" for our kids.