OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Surfing takes a lot of trust, courage, and sometimes a whole community to get you out on the water. In North County, one group is making the ocean accessible to everyone, no matter their abilities.
“There's something to be said for chosen adversity. I didn't choose being blind, but I can choose whether or not to surf,” Joshua Loya, a Waves 4 All surfer, says.
Loya is well known in Oceanside. He lost his eyesight as a teenager and started surfing in 2017. A year later, he met the people who would help him find a whole new relationship with the sport.
“You don't get to go out into the ocean and have a juvenile dolphin swim underneath your surfboard if you're not in the water,” Loya says.
For another surfer, Chris Waker, getting back in the water meant finding a piece of himself he thought he'd lost forever.
“I thought my life was over in that moment, so to be able to get back to doing the things I love is just amazing,” Waker says.
Waker was a professional snowboarder before a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed. Today, he's competing on the adaptive surfing tour.
But you don't have to compete to belong to the Waves 4 All community.
“I was meeting people and their next session was a year from that moment. And I'm thinking, the ocean isn't going anywhere. I'm here. Let's make this happen,” John White, founder of Waves 4 All, says.
White started volunteering with an adaptive surf program about a decade ago. He saw people needed more than a one-day experience. So he built Waves 4 All into a year-round community, one that has now helped more than a thousand participants.
“Our goal is to make sure that everybody is staying safe, having a good time, getting stoked, getting that feeling that makes them want to come back and do it again,” White says.
For Loya, that also means being treated like any other surfer, free to find his own waves, with a community that understands him without needing an explanation.
“Go hunt where the joy is, and that's usually where the scary and the difficult places are too,” Loya says.
The group is hosting an international surf session November 24 at Cardiff Reef, bringing adaptive surfers together for a day in the water. They're also looking for volunteers and participants year-round.
“Let's have some fun. Let's have a party, and really just trying to bring parasurfers and those who can help them together. That's my mission,” White says.
