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Community Corner

Empowering Special Youth With Surf

Hermosa Beach resident Vince Ray is selected as a Patch "Greatest Person."

The first time Redondo Union High School senior Sean Lynch, 17, stood up on a surfboard, he made the evening news.

Diagnosed with Fragile X Syndrome—a genetic condition that causes inherited intellectual disabilities—as a young child, Sean’s parents, Kevin and Andrea Lynch tried to encourage their son to surf for years without much luck.

But everything changed the day the Lynch family met Vince Ray at the .

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"Something must have just clicked," Andrea said.

Having never stood up on a board before, Sean spent the entire afternoon riding waves, having his picture taken by news photographers and occasionally flirting with pretty girls, Andrea said with laughter in her voice.

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Ray hopped into the water with Sean—staying right by his side—while teaching him how to surf at the camp, she said.

"He’s connected. He understands [special needs children]," Andrea said. "I think what he’s doing is so wonderful."

She’s not alone.

Ray’s surf camp, which has been running since 1989, began offering classes specifically for children with special needs two years ago with the help of nonprofit group the Friendship Circle—attracting the attention of parents nationwide.

Well known in the Hermosa Beach community as the "Surfing Santa"—he dresses up in a Santa suit while riding the waves during the winter holidays—Ray, 53, has amassed a staff of lifeguards and teachers to give children with special needs the support they need to learn such a challenging sport safely while having fun.

"People say all the time, ‘You must be so patient,’" Ray said. "I guess that’s true, but really, you have to be creative."

Talkative and friendly, Ray regales with stories of enticing the children he works with to engage with him through untraditional tactics like storytelling and tickle fights. 

He said he first learned that he could connect with special needs children while volunteering with a local arts program. He loved the experience, he said, which was a stark contrast to his feelings for his day job as a cable technician.

"I was just really burned out," he said.

Ray became a surf instructor in his mid-30s, teaching both adults and children. After earning the necessary teaching certifications, he also began working for the Los Angeles County Division of Special Education.

"I tried substitute teaching for a while, but I didn’t really enjoy the classroom," he said. "When you work one-on-one with a student, you can get so much more done with them."

He then fell into in-home teaching when a student with severe anxiety and depression needed more personalized instruction for her classes.

"I made a connection with her, and she graduated," he said matter-of-factly. "I taught her all year."

Ray now works as an in-home teacher for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District during the school year.

"Most of the kids I work with are sick or injured, so usually I go to their home and tutor them," he said. "Keep up their school work, so they can graduate."

And the summers are for surf camp, as Ray offers two week-long surf camps for special needs children.

"We have two or three instructors per student," he said. "Or more."

In addition to instructors, each student in the camp is paired with a teenage volunteer, many of whom come from the Friendship Circle, where Sean’s younger sister Emily also volunteers during her free time.

"All of [Ray’s] staff are so caring with the special needs children. Talking with them and holding them and looking right at them in the eye; giving them all of their attention," Andrea Lynch said. "I’m just happy to have people like Vince that dedicate their time to special needs kids."

Ray combines his experiences as a teacher with knowledge from a master’s degree program in special education at Cal State Dominguez Hills to develop effective teaching strategies for the special needs camps.

Ray engages the students with stories of his travels as a young amateur surfing champion, and encourages them to tell their own.

"Some of these kids never speak. Then we get them out in the water and they’re talking my ear off," he said, chuckling.

The water itself seems to be a catalyst for positive changes in many of the children Ray works with, he said, "it’s almost as if the white noise of the ocean has a calming effect on them."

Something about the ocean is special—Andrea Lynch said she remembers vividly how stunned and happy she was when her son rode that first wave.

"I was so stoked, I just stood there screaming, ‘Go, Sean, Go!’"

She said Sean’s confidence skyrocketed as the day wore on, and several months later, it’s stuck.

"He and his dad go surfing on the weekends," Andrea said. "They take the boards out there and they have a good time."

She added that it’s hard to explain how much it means for her husband and son to be able to spend time together over a sport they both love.

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