Inneright Surf Shop surf camp teaches them the basics in three days. And kids don’t have to have their own board. Troy Moon, tmoon@pnj.com
CONNECTCOMMENTEMAILMORE
Sometimes it can take just a single summer camp session to launch a lifetime love of surfing.
Local surfer Abby Remke knows this as well as anyone. A Pensacola Catholic rising senior, Remke is among the area’s top competitive surfers, claiming the 2018 National Explorer Longboard National Champion, the first from the Florida Gulf Coast region to do so.
It’s not a passion Remke was born into, however. Instead it was something she discovered one memorable summer many years ago.
“No one in my family surfs so the summer when I was 9 I did (the Innerlight summer camp) three times,” Remke said. “It just kind of stuck. I never in a million years thought I’d be a surfer, but then I did those camps and it was so much fun.”
Remke has since been involved with summer surf camps run by Innerlight Surf Shop, which are in full swing with the opening of summer 2019.
Camps run through August at Innerlight, leaving plenty of time for locals to learn a thing or two about shredding waves no matter their experience level.
“Almost everyone is a beginner and has never done it before,” Remke said. “So you’ll learn all about surfing and about the water. Surfing safety, how to surf and then we actually teach them how to do it.”
Waterboyz Surf & Skate Shop also hosts an annual summer surf camp, adding in lessons on skimboarding, a sport in which riders glide across the top of the water to surf incoming waves at the shore.
It’s little surprise that the two sports sometimes overlap for teachers and students.
“You’ll see a lot of the kids after they skimboard they’ve been running so much so they want to surf anyways,” Waterboyz team member Antonio Berrocal said.
More: Surfs up! Remke and Green make Pensacola proud
Both camps run at $170 and provide surfboards for camp students, though they differ with Innerlight offering three four-hour sessions and Waterboyz offering four three-hour sessions. Both shops’ websites expressed flexibility regarding family discounts and single-day sessions.
Occasional flat spells on the Gulf of Mexico won’t put a damper on summer camp either as there’s plenty for Remke and camp teachers to show beginners no matter the conditions.
“A lot of people don’t think of surfing when they think of the Gulf Coast, but whenever we have waves it is so much fun,” Remke said. “Obviously, it’s not like surfing out in Hawaii because it’s so much fun. You get good on messy waves and can then go out and surf on anything… We’ll go out in anything.”
Eric J. Wallace can be reached at ejwallace@pnj.com or 850-525-5087.
Innerlight Surf Camps
Price: $170
What’s Needed: Swimsuit, towel, food/drink, ages 7 and older
What’s Provided: Surfboard
Camp Length: 3 days
Camp Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Camp Schedule: Visit https://www.innerlightsurf.com/pages/surf-camp
Waterboyz Surf and Skim Camp
Price: $170
What’s Needed: Swimsuit, towel, ages 7 and older
What’s Provided: Surfboard, snack/water
Camp Length: 4 days
Camp Time: 9 a.m. to Noon
Camp Schedule: Visit https://www.waterboyz.com/pages/summer-camp
CONNECTCOMMENTEMAILMORE
Recent Comments