Catching on
Deirdre Newman
Scott Morlan has had the same summer job every year since 1973.
“Every morning, I have to go to the beach,” he joked.
Morlan has been teaching kids and adults how to surf for the past
three decades for the city of Newport Beach. His passion for teaching
the sport never wanes.
“We have a great time together,” said Morlan, the head instructor.
“This is a great job.”
On Friday morning, 20 kids with bright-colored surfboards dotted
the ocean around the Newport Pier, bobbing and weaving their way
through the waves. When they caught one, their grins were practically
as long as their surfboards.
“This particular class happens to be really good,” Morlan said.
“They’re particularly agile. There are some veterans. They’re an
attentive, sharp group of kids.”
The beginners class also contained the youngest kid Morlan has
ever taught -- 6-year-old Brendan Rafferty, whose board was more than
twice his size. Even though the waves were fairly flat Friday,
Brendan managed to catch a few. Morlan cheered him on.
Brendan’s sister, Annie, said she took the class after hearing
about how much fun surfing was from other kids at school.
“I think the class is really good; I’m enjoying it a lot,” Annie,
11, said. “The teachers are really cool. They make sure you
understand the concept if you’re just not getting it.”
After students pass a swimming test, the goal for the first day of
surfing is to get the students into the water and have them ride a
wave to the beach. Almost all of them succeeded independently, Morlan
said.
Then the ocean went flat, Morlan said, leaving surfing contests as
the only option.
“The whole point is just to make them have fun and, in the
process, they were catching wave after wave and not thinking about
it,” he said.
Andrew Clary, 9, said he learned cool surfing techniques like the
coffin, when you lay down on your board after catching a wave, and
surfing backward.
“I like surfing,” Andrew said. “I want to be better at it.”
In addition to learning surfing, the class also fosters a sense of
spirit among the surfers as they patiently wait for the waves to come
in. Many said they enjoyed hanging out with their friends as they
waited while others enjoyed making new friends.
“The kids will gravitate toward each other even not knowing them
before,” Morlan said.
In the 30 years he has been teaching surfing, Morlan said he has
had a lot of return students, such as a family from Fresno that comes
back practically every year.
Infusing his students with a sense of love for the ocean comes
naturally to Morlan, who surfs as often as he can. He also imbues his
students with respect for the ocean and a disdain for pollution.
“I talk to the kids about it,” Morlan said. “When they find
plastic bags in the ocean, I tell them, ‘Go take it to the trash, and
you’ll be my environmental hero for a day.’”
* SUMMER LEARNING is a weekly feature in which the Daily Pilot
visits a summer camp in the Newport-Mesa area and writes about it.
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