Accessible surfing offers safe way to ride the waves

The first time Ronna MacCormack brought her son Richard to surf, she was excited. She was also pretty anxious.

But on Saturday, 13-year-old Richard was smiling and laughing even when he slipped off the board.

If you ask him whether he had fun in the waves, Richardreplies with an enthusiastic yes.

Accessible surfing: Richard rides a wave

5 years ago

Duration 0:59

13-year-old Richard MacCormack was one of 60 people at Martinique Beach on Saturday taking part in an event that makes surfing accessible.

"He's a wild man," his mom said Saturday. "He loves to try new things. But before he was off the water, he was like, 'I want to do this again.'"

Richard was one of 60 people atMartinique Beach, about 14 kilometres south of Musquodoboit Harbour,for Life Rolls On. It's an annual event that gives people with a wide range of accessibility needs a chance to surf.

"It's amazing that somebody would do this," MacCormack said. "Every opportunity for somebody to do something different and exciting, it's awesome."

The event is run by roughly 120 volunteers who make up different surfing teams, each suited to adapt to the needs of the person on the board.

"It's giving them the opportunity to do something they 'd like to do," said Chrissy Merrigan, who is on the board of directors for Life Rolls On. "And simply the barrier is the sand."

Merrigansaid staff show up the night before to rake the beach, put up a ramp and lay down plywood boats and mats.

"You can't put a power chair on sand, you can't push a wheelchair throughsand. So by creating these platforms and providing the beach wheelchairs, we're just removing those barriers," she said.

On the day of the event, Merrigan said it's about making sure everyone is safe and comfortable in the water.

"There's a fine balance between making sure they're having fun and havingsome autonomy and freedom, but alsomaking sure that if something occurswhere they dip off the board that they're able to be picked up quite quickly."

But Merrigan said they recognize that having the event once a year isn't enough. They're working to try and do more days throughout the year, but it's not easy when the event is run by volunteers.

While there are a few accessible beaches in Nova Scotia, there aren't many. Merrigan said she's thankful that's slowly starting to change.

"There's a trend toward looking at the environment as the barrier,not the body," she said."So it's great to see that we're considering all kinds of people being able to access our beautiful coast."

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