Kasie Watson stood on the shoreline, smiling and crying as she recorded her daughter surfing.
“Mom, I didn’t see you crying,” retorted Watson’s 16-year-old daughter, Brooklynn Lane.
“Well, I was wearing sunglasses,” Watson said, looking at her daughter who was absolutely soaked, having been in the ocean moments before – a feat Watson once didn’t think her daughter would ever undertake willingly, much less on a surfboard.
“She does that every time,” Lane said about her mother crying on the shore.
Lane grew up on the South Carolina coast, but for years, she was scared to go into the ocean. Not even a few years ago, she wouldn’t go in past her knees, her mother said.
The teenager, friendly and brave, has a chromosome deletion and trouble balancing. Well, she had trouble balancing.
It wasn’t just her physical therapy that got Lane to the point she’s at today, running around the beach, free and having fun, it was also Wheel to Surf, Watson said.
Wheel to Surf is the flagship event for the Adaptive Surf Project, a nonprofit that helps differently-abled people surf.
Around 100 volunteers and over 60 surfers along with their families gathered at Cherry Grove Beach on Saturday.
There were beach wheelchairs, specialty-made surfboards and color-coordinated helpers placed in an assembly line fashion in the water. A few at the shore would take the surfer, donned in the necessary safety equipment, from a beach wheelchair and put them belly-down on the board (not every surfer used a beach wheelchair). They would then pass them along the line until the surfer, still on the board, would be deeper in the water, with a few volunteers, waiting for a good wave.
Some surfers bodysurfed on their own, gliding back to shore, meeting a chorus of cheers from those gathered on the beach, and others were not alone on their boards.
Twelve-year-old Adaya McDowell had Luke Sharp, the founder of the Adaptive Surf Project, with her on the board.
After making the journey from the beach wheelchair then through the sea of volunteers, she was excited to catch a wave and when they’d finally hit a good wave, Sharp would lift McDowell up. Her hair moved in the wind and her smile could be seen from the shore. Her mom, Amanda McDowell, just like Watson, was in the water up to her ankles, taking pictures.
“She’s a tough girl,” Amanda McDowell said. “This is our fourth year. You start out as strangers and end up as friends. Giving her an opportunity she wouldn’t be able to have otherwise, you know, it’s great.”
The Wheel to Surf event on Saturday was the 10-year anniversary, with the theme Waves of Happiness.
Founder Brock Johnson attended, enjoying the fruit of his labor – multiple differently abled surfers riding waves and overcoming obstacles.
“It started because getting back in the water was important to me. When I had my accident 12 years ago, the one thing I wanted to go do again the most was surf,” he said.
Johnson met his wife, Rebecca, at a Wheel to Surf event. She doesn’t surf, but calls herself a surf supporter.
“We believe in the power of stoke to raise the community,” she said. “You’re sharing the stoke and you’re getting the stoke.”
She shared her thoughts Saturday while watching the surfers. When one of the surfers caught a good wave and stood on the board, Rebecca Johnson lost her train of thought. She laughed a joyful laugh and clapped, a smile spreading across her face.
“A lot of times, this is the freest you’ll be,” she said, still looking out over the water. “It’s for all ages.”
Ernie Johnson said the stoke is a real feeling.
“August will be 26 years I've been paralyzed. I'm in pain all day every day except for when I'm on my surfboard in the water. That is the only time in my entire life that I don’t feel pain,” the 43-year-old said. “It’s the salt water, it’s the floating, being buoyant in the water.”
He said the stress of everyday life goes away when being in the water, because all you’re able to think about is the last wave and the next wave. When he first got on the board after his accident, though, he was nervous.
“It was scary. I was terrified. I didn’t trust anybody,” he said. “It took the right people to get me comfortable. … Now I don’t enjoy anything in life as much as I do surfing.”
The right people, according to him, are people who listen and are patient with the surfers while also understanding when to step out of the way of the board. It can be a too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen type of deal when too many volunteers crowd around the board.
Some families travel far to give their children a chance to have this rare experience.
Jessica Cody and her son Christian traveled nine hours from Kentucky so he could have a chance on the board. His first time was just this past October and now his mom says they will continue to come to Wheel to Surf events for as long as Christian wants.
She says back home, they go off-roading and Christian loves that. The 15-year-old is nonverbal and when he was born, Cody was told he would never walk.
“They said to me, ‘Take him home. Love him,’” she said. “It’s breathtaking to see him [surf]. It gives him something to look forward to and he wanted to come back here.”
When Jose Solorio first went surfing with Luke Sharp, he ended up farther out in the water than he planned.
“He was like ‘Are you ready?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, I never surfed in my life,’” he said. “He took me in the water, and came out of the first wave, then another one and another one. We started right at the pier. We ended up like, I don't know how far.”
When it was time to make it back to his chair, Sharp carried him back.
Now, Solorio attends as many Wheel to Surf events as he can, despite not being a fan of the beach, but he takes his camera. He says the best part is capturing the surfers’ smiles as they accomplish something seldom thought about in relation to people with disabilities.
“Everyone deserves the right to do something dangerous and fun,” Sharp said, having just emerged from the water, ready to help the next surfer have this rare opportunity.
The Adaptive Surf Project and Wheel to Surf are always accepting donations to help acquire specialty-made surfboards, beach wheelchairs and to throw these surfing events throughout the year.
The city of Myrtle Beach is looking to make beach wheelchairs more accessible to citizens through partnering with the Adaptive Surf Project, according to a Facebook post from the city.
"While we work towards that solution, we are exploring ideas and logistics to create a beach wheelchair program that suits the needs of our community best," the post read. "We plan to meet again with Adaptive Surf Project members in the coming weeks to determine a more concrete plan together and bring wheelchairs back to the beach."
The city of North Myrtle Beach has beach wheelchairs to use free of charge, but they must be picked up at the beach services warehouse at 1024 6th Ave South.
According to the city's website, reservations are encouraged and the wheelchairs can be reserved for up to a week at a time and during the summer season, there are delivery and pickup services for the wheelchairs for $25.
Horry County also has beach wheelchairs free to use for the unincorporated beaches, but they must be requested at least two days in advance by calling 843-381-8000 or by emailing beachwheelchair@horrycounty.org.
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