As a native of Savannah and the coastal Georgia area, I have grown up in and around the creeks and ocean. My life has always been a water-filled adventure of boating, sailing and surfing. My father bought my first surfboard when I was 15. I went surfing everyday that I could – on both small and large waves.  With a bit of practice, I rapidly became addicted to the "stoke" of surfing a wave. Surfing ignites a spirit in your heart unlike any other life experience. I’ve also learned that surfing in a particular place for any amount of time, can give you a community of great surfing buddies full of aloha for a lifetime.

With the addiction of the surfing stoke and the new community of friends, surfers love to cramp into cars and spend their savings to go on surfing safaris. The surfing "bug" has taken me to many beaches along the east coast between Sebastian Inlet and Cape Hatteras, to Southern California, Costa Rica, Peru and most recently, Maui. Although most surfers crave to find that perfect wave, I’m searching to find the birthplace of the true essence of aloha in its birthplace of Hawaii. I believe each town has it’s own personality and with it comes a new set of the waves of life.

It gives me great pleasure to share this sublime experience with others, which is why after a few years of learning I began offering free lessons to friends and random strangers on the beach. What began as friendly hellos and surfing fascinations, literally turned into surfing lessons. In 2006 I joined a team of local surfers working together with the YMCA summer youth camps, to create Georgia’s first large-scale surfing camp for kids. I started out as the second assistant in the camp and expanded my ability to learn from and share the surfing experience. In the Summer of 2009, I directed the camps and added introductory SUP classes and advanced techniques groups. Now in its fifth year, the YMCA continues to offer a quality introduction to surfing for the youth of Savannah, Tybee, and the Low Country.  Contact the Tybee YMCA at 912-786-9622 to register your child this summer.