Transcript - Episode 48 – The Blind Sport Podcast
Blind Surfing with Larry Graff
Published: 10 October 2015 at www.theblindsportpodcast.com where you can download or listen to the audio podcast version.
Introduction
This is episode 48 of The Blind Sport Podcast, entitled Blind Surfing with Larry Graff.
Hi I’m Mike and this is The Blind Sport Podcast. The sports show for the blind, the partially sighted and the supportive sighty.
Thanks for joining me for Episode 48. On the show we are talking about surfing for the blind. Swami’s Surfing Association has been running surfing programs for the blind for over 20 years. This inspiring initiative provides blind and vision impaired people with the opportunity to be safely introduced to the exciting sport of surfing.
The idea is to capture the power of the ocean as you get propelled towards the beach on that big breaker, and to look as cool as you can before you get dumped on your face.
Hi there, I hope this episode finds you fit and well. Before we chat to Larry about surfing, I would like to thank you for the feedback received re Episode 47 where we spoke to Joshua Loya about the martial art of Karate.
Some of the comments that I received included:
From Kim: “I have been blind all of my life and I must say that starting martial arts was the best decision that I have ever made”
And from Charles: “I agree with Joshua. I can thank Karate for improving my self-awareness, confidence, balance and mental discipline.”
Please email me with any comments.
Contact Jingle - To contact Mike or comment on The Blind Sport Podcast, submit a feedback form from the website www.theblindsportpodcast.com, email , send us a tweet @BlindSportMike or follow us on Twitter @blindsportmike, or visit The Blind Sport Podcast page on Facebook.
Interview
Mike – Surfing is possibly not a sport that many people associate with the blind and vision impaired. But why not? After all we do everything else.
Joining us to talk about surfing is Larry Graff from Swami’s Surfing Association in California.
Welcome to the show Larry and thank you for joining us.
Larry – It’s a pleasure.
Mike – Can you tell us about your blind surfing program. How did it start and what has been its history?
Larry – Well about 21 years ago, I was watching television and I saw blind people water skiing and I’ve done a lot of water sports and I’ve water-skied and waterskiing kinda scares me cos for one when you hit the water you bounce, and for two you’re going about 40 miles an hour and I’m always wondering if I’m going to hit something in the water or I’m going to take a turn that’s too wide and I’m a perfectly sighted individual. And it came to me, if a person’s living with blindness and visual impairment can go water skiing then they can go surfing.
So I was out in the line up at Swami’s, one of the older, tougher guys was Bruce King and he was president of the Swami’s Surf Association and I was a member of the Lions Club and Lions International is an organisation that specialises, focuses on sight impaired disabilities and Swami’s Surf Association knows about surfing.
Swami’s is a world famous surf break and one of the better breaks in Southern California and we are honoured to be able to surf there. Well I paddled up to Bruce and I said “Bruce, I’d like to take blind people surfing” and I was a new comer to Swami’s. I’d only been there probably oh, 15 close to 20 years so I was just recent there in terms of locals and he looked at me and he said “Larry, get away from me. Get out of the way”.
So I went back, I didn’t stop there. I paddled back there after him and I said “Bruce. I really want to take blind people surfing” and he looked at me again and not all too nicely told me to get away from him and he paddled away again.
And not being someone to take no for an answer, and back in those days you had to be pretty tough just to stay in the line-up. I’d been there for 15 years or so and I paddled after him again and I said “Bruce, I’m not taking no for an answer. We can take blind people surfing. You’re with Swami’s and I’m with the Lions and we can do this.” and finally he exasperatedly said to me “Alright Larry, how are we going to do it?.”.
And I laid out the initial plan with him and we built upon that and kind of looked at me and he said “You know I think we can do it.”. So from that day forward, Bruce and I have become good friends and we’ve been doing this for 20 years now.
Mike - So how does your program work?
Larry – We surround each blind person with a team of surfers who know what they are doing and we put them on the soft boards for safety. We take them out to about chest deep water. Usually two people take them out so far in chest deep water and then the team is stationed along the way, all the way to the shore, so that when the wave comes and it’s usually the reform or the white water, we push them in to it and then they will ride that wave. Sometimes they’ll stand up, sometimes they’ll lay on their belly, sometimes they will get to their knees. Whatever they are comfortable with. And they’ll ride the wave as far as they do and when they fall, somebody is always there to get them. In addition to the team, there will be a safety net of people, additional people in the water. We take out four, five. This last year, we had seventeen teams in the water at once. We had about 50 blind people and 150 volunteers.
Mike – Wow.
Larry - Yeah, so we surround them with a safety net. We designate teams. We take them in to chest deep water. Whenever they fall, someone is there immediately to make them feel safe and comfortable. Make sure nobody gets hurt.
Mike – What sort of size surf conditions do you get there?
Larry – Well, no one can predict the surf conditions so we pick a beach that is safe in all conditions. We’ve been doing it at this beach almost all 20 years. South Carlsbad State Beach is a great beach and weaker conditions in the 20 years we’ve been doing it we’ve had conditions anywhere from solid 6 foot to 1-2 feet.
Mike – What are the biggest challenges for a new surfer? What are the sort of things that they find the hardest to learn or get the grasp of?
Larry – They come to us with such great enthusiasm and trust that it doesn’t seem like it is. It’s amazing actually. I guess for some people I think they’re a little timid, they’re a little afraid. Sometimes it takes a little convincing to get them to try it. Once they do, they want to come back every year. They want to take a lot of waves. They want to keep doing it so once they start, they’re hooked.
Mike – And what sort of age groups are we talking here. Is it sort of kids, adults, everything?
Larry – Oh, we get them, there’s young, there’s probably aged 8 and as old as 73.
Mike – Wow, that’s awesome.
Larry – Thanks.
Mike – What are the main things you communicate with the surfer?
Larry – We give them a beach lesson and we talk about safety. Tell them to shuffle their feet. One of the biggest things are we need to keep verbally communicating with them all of the time, so when a wave is going to hit them whether they are standing on the board or on the board, we’ll usually say “wave” and so they know it’s coming so they can brace themselves. We are always verbally communicating with them. We have people of varying degrees of ability, so depending on their degree of ability where some will say, “pop up”, “stand up” and they’ll stand up, they will ride that wave all the way in to the shore. Where somebody will be there to help them gently step off on to the sand. We’re always letting them know we’re there.
Mike – You know when you’ve run out of wave when you’ve hit the beach.
Larry – Oh yeah. Well, it’s stops pretty quick sometimes.
Mike – Many injuries at all?
Larry – Well, in 20 years, we’ve had maybe one injury. Someone’s stepped off on to the beach and hurt their ankle but other than that, no real injuries.
Mike – Oh, that’s cool. Bit of sunburn, bit of windburn.
Larry – Sunburn, we make sure everyone puts sunblock on but I think surfers get pretty tired at the end of day. And sometimes when there is a good strong current and the waves are a little bigger, it’s a lot of work.
But we work with a lot of people to do this event. San Diego Surfing Academy, California Junior Lifeguard Program, the Lions Club helps serve food. State Parks & Recreation have been a great partner for all 20 years. They really make the process so easy to do the event. The Hansen Surfboards help sponsor the event, pays for the food. And there’s hundreds of volunteers. Everybody is helping do the work together.
Mike - That’s awesome.
Larry – Sure is.
Mike - Are these things done anywhere else in the world as well?
Larry – We were the first to do it and I’m told they are doing it now in Hawaii, the same program and they are also doing it in Australia. So, you know, we are real proud. Nobody takes ownership of an event like this. I would hope that people copy it all over.
You know when I first started the event, I thought I was taking blind people surfing. I thought I was helping blind people experience the joy of surfing and doing something for blind people, but I’m doing that but I was really wrong.
We created awareness in everyone. People come up to me all year long telling me that what a great event it was and what a profound effect it had on them and we are talking about the volunteers, the surfers, the people who served food, people who helped guide the blind people just from the beach to the tent on the beach. I mean, it turns out we’re not just helping blind people. We’re making a profound impact on everyone. One person at a time, we’re changing the world.
Mike - Good work.
Larry - Thank you.
Mike - What skills may someone learn, or gain if you like, by doing surfing that they may not learn or gain by doing any other type of sport.
Larry - Well, it helps with coordination and balance. It gives you an appreciation for the environment. That’s not a skill but that’s an acquired trait. It makes you aware of the majestical beauty of this world. It gives you a profound effect for life and the beauty of life. Recently I had a really interesting communication from a woman who is not just blind, but also deaf. She is blind and she is deaf and she wants to learn how to surf.
Mike - Awesome.
Larry - She lives in Berkley. She’s a Harvard Law graduate. She was honoured by President Obama at the Whitehouse. She is a disability rights advocate and she can’t hear and she can’t see so we have been communicating trying to work out how we are going to take her surfing. She wants to surf the wave by herself and we are going to make it happen. These are the kinds of awareness’s we raise in everyone by doing the event. They see this, they want to try it too. I’m proud of this. I think this is a very brave woman. I’ve told her, you might feel a little crazy but then again you’re probably a surfer at heart cos all surfers are just a little crazy.
Mike – It does help.
Larry – Yes it does. Especially on the bigger waves. But I’m looking forward to it. We are going to be taking her surfing between December 24 and January 3rd and we’re just working through the details now on communication and how we are going to do it and it’s going to take some strategical planning, some logistics.
Mike - Yeah, that’s cool
Larry - Thanks.
Mike - Is there any level of competition for blind surfers at all?
Larry - Well, interesting enough, we’ve just had the Dafter Sports Event in surfing, which included blind people surfing. We have an individual who started with us almost 20 years ago. His name is Scott Leason. He is incredible. He was a sighted individual and lost his sight when someone shot him at a convenience store robbery and he was working there. And, he really didn’t do any surfing after that until about 20 years ago when he became aware of the event and he came down and now he’s a semi-professional athlete raising awareness and doing all types of sports including surfing and he was in those in that competition along with a lot of different people with a lot of different persons living with disabilities. Amputees, all types of persons living with disabilities. I’m real proud of the fact, that you know, it’s a ripple effect. We helped create an awareness for Scott that he could surf and he surfs pretty well actually. You know, he’s coached by Pat Webber of San Diego Surfing Academy and Pat is an incredible human being. He does a great job with Scott. Scott creates awareness in other people and raises funds for non-profit organisations through his activities and this is how we change the world, one person at a time. I’m proud of what we’ve done. It’s not me. It’s the Swami Surf Association, it’s everyone all together. It takes a team of people to make a difference. You know I would say that I think the lesson I learnt over 20 years of doing this is that nothing is more powerful than an idea once people believe in it. You know Bruce King believed in my idea 20 years ago and then the people from the Blind Community Centre San Diego. They were the first organisation to participate and they believed in the idea and now we have people coming from all over the United States to do this event with us and people all over the world are doing it too. Nothing is more powerful than an idea once people believe in it.
Mike - For sure. Well done. Awesome work.
Larry - Thank you Mike.
Mike - Now, during your years on the beach and in the waves, you must have experienced some rather humorous or funny moments where you’ve sort of been laughing yourself silly. Can you mention some of those funnier moments for us?
Larry - I guess, we surf a pretty serious surf spot. When it gets big but Laurie Norton ocne was writing in the Swamis newsletter how she was out in the surf and you know everybody gets a nickname sooner or later and she was writing, she gave me my nickname when she saw me and a guy by the name of Swami Johnny on a wave taking off on probably a good size, a 15 foot base. Laurie rides a short board. She always sits in the pit. She saw both of us coming down the wave and she nicknamed me Larry the Eluminator. And that stuck for a while and I’ve had other nicknames since then but I always liked that one.