Securing The Bond With Your Kids… Through Surfing

One of the best ways to strengthen the bond with your kids is if you can share some kind of activity with them and connect with them on an emotional level, as found in neuroscientific research. Sports are amongst the best activities for bonding, and while most parents tend to do things like fishing, baseball or football, surfing is a surprisingly effective choice for bonding. Before you can even get to the surfing part of the process, however, there are certain things that you’ll need to teach your child first.

It all starts with swimming

Safety is very important when it comes to surfing, and while wearing a life vest is always an option, teaching your kids how to swim should be your biggest priority in order to avoid the risk of drowning. Another thing that you might want to learn yourself is some first aid related to swimming accidents, as it is always better to be safe than to be sorry. The safety aspects of swimming are very important, not only because they will fall into the water hundreds of times while they’re learning how to surf, but also because it will help them become stronger. When they’re reliant on a safety vest, they won’t be using their muscles as much. There are all kinds of ways that you can teach kids how to swim, but the best way to do it is to spend time with them in a training pool and then advance into deeper parts. It’s also a good idea to invest in formal swimming lessons.

Choosing and customizing the surfboard

Of course, you cannot surf without a board, and while you can share one, the kids will embrace surfing more if they have their own. There are quite a lot of boards that you can buy at a store with all sorts of designs, but to increase the bond between you and your children, painting one together is a much better idea. Designing a surfboard with your kids is actually very easy, and the cost of personalizing it to their wishes is only a big amount of patience. Remember to keep things safe by wearing face masks, gloves, and other protective equipment to avoid risking your health from all the liquids and fumes present during the painting.

Catching the first waves

Once your children have learned how to swim and you’ve acquired and painted the boards, they’ll be quite hyped up and ready to attempt surfing. While the pop-up is not the easiest part of surfing, it is something that you should start teaching your kids first. This part requires a lot of patience, and the sea also needs to co-operate with you, as stronger waves are usually quite difficult for kids. If the waves are high, wait until they are flatter, as they can be quite discouraging and scary for kids. One of the most important things when it comes to teaching your kids how to surf is to also teach them that wiping out is a part of the process, and that they should have fun while they’re doing it.

Surfing is not something that everyone has the opportunity to teach their kids, as it is quite difficult to get into it to begin with. If you are someone who can surf, however, don’t let this opportunity go to waste. You can not only make a strong connection with your kids, but it will also help them create memories that they will never forget.