Day 4: Effort (boys)

Today is Thursday and the fourth day of Surf N' Serve. The end of this week will be the closing of one of the best weeks we have all experienced. Today we went out to catch a few waves in the morning. Then during our break we played one game of a good old duck-duck-goose. After the game we headed back for the waves. Day by day we all are improving and becoming better surfers. Today's word of the day is effort, and would say we all put our effort in order to catch as many waves as possible.

Soon after surfing we prepared into going to mission trails to do our service part of the day. We arrived and met Ranger Mel and he told us some history of the park. It was really interesting to learn about the history and changes that the park has gone through. Our job for the day was to fill in ditches and potholes with granite rocks. We all put in a lot of effort into filling them up. After working we all felt good that we all put out a helping hand to the mission trails and made a difference.

Efrain G, class of 2013

Day 3: Determination (Boys)

1st the worst, 2nd the best, 3rd the golden eagle bird. One of my pre-school nursery rhymes.Well, today was golden in the chilly waters. We went far out to learn about breaking points, impact zones, and even having the beautiful sight of a dolphin pod! It was an awesome experience interacting with the instructors and not freezing in the wet suit at the same time. We caught a load of waves and saw some jellyfish, crazy to say but one even landed on my board. But hey, today was awesome with plenty of surfers surfing and staying totally stoked. Even though today's surf group was pretty big, but we still learned fast and well!

And that is what I call determination, the determination to learn and most of all, have fun.

After hours of surfing, which seemed like minutes, we drove all the way to the US-Mexico border for our community service. Our task today was to pull weeds out of the garden, for the protection of native plants that still grow in San Diego. We learned so many types of weeds and their names! I even said, "Hey, that grows in my back yard!" The sun was not too hot, though when I came home my mom said my face was red as a tomato! I know I put a lot of sunscreen on my face, maybe 50 isn’t enough!!! All in all it was a great day of surfing and weeding weeds and us boys are having a blast!

-William Q, Class of 2013

Surfer that stays stoked!

Day 2: Challenge (week 2 Boys)

Today was the second day of Surf N' Serve for the boys and we were all excited to jump back into the water and catch some waves. Today's word of the day is "Challenge." One of the biggest challenges we faced today was riding a wave. We did way better then the first day. We also played a new game called octopus tag, which was quite a work out. We also learned how to body surf properly. Then we surfed for another hour and were able to ride a lot more waves, thanks to our wonderful surf instructor’s at PB Surf School. http://www.pacificbeachsurfshop.com/. They are honestly the best instructors ever!!

After surfing, Ms. Biersbach set up a Beach Cleanup for our service project. She told us that the person who collects the most trash would get a prize. This made picking up trash really fun and competitive. We ran around looking for trash and trying to fill up our trash bags. We walked and ran for over four miles! This made us exhausted. We can't wait to go back in the water and help the community out tomorrow.

Jesus (Chuy), Class of 2013

Day 1: Attitude (Boys week 2)

Today was the first day of Surf n' Serve! Even though we had a slow start everything sped up once we hit the water. The word of the day today was attitude. This word fit perfectly for our first day because we were all a bit tired in the morning but through everybody’s great attitude it turned into a good day. Surfing was very fun because all of the guys and the instructors got along very well.

Though we had a small setback when a stingray stung me, we were still able to go to the soup kitchen and even ate lunch in the guard tower before our service. Even though I was in pain I still kept a great attitude because I had a good group of friends with me through the whole thing. We were even making jokes as I sat there soaking my food in boiling hot water.

After a tiring surf session we went to the soup kitchen to help set things up and give food out. It was a lot of fun interacting with the people there. It was also a lot of fun setting everything up, even though we were a bit late because of the stingray incident. This experience brought a different perspective to our eyes as we saw these people that did not have much but had such a great attitude for everything that they did have, even if it was something very little.

Erik H, Class of 2012