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.