Will Surfing Lose to Suburbia?

Though Dorian Paskowitz traveled the world in search of surf and harmony, bringing his wife and nine children with him, will his children to do the same? Will they rear their children like nomads or will they settle down to a life of property taxes and garage sales?

Said Joshua-Ben, 12: “I think I would be more conventional about it. I’d want us (his future family) to live in a house, but raise them like my father did. With the knowledge others don’t get to experience, by seeing other things like old women toting water for miles or people so poor they can’t afford to eat.”

The proper diet was of particular importance to Dorian, too. Nutritionist Nathan Pritikin was a close friend, and he believed in his low-fat, low-sodium, low-calorie philosophies.

“He was so strict about everything we ate,” said Israel, 24. “Even sugar. When he caught us eating M&Ms;, he had such a fit, he wouldn’t let us go to a surf contest. . . . I want my kids to eat right, but I don’t think I would be quite so extreme.”

Israel said he loved living on the road--for the most part--but he’s looking forward to settling down in a real home with his wife.

“I will keep my dad’s morals, and his (advocation for) health food,” Israel said. “And though he thought being in school taught you to drink (alcohol), I’d like my kids to go to school. But I’d also want them to be different like me, to travel and to see things. Now, I don’t know if I’d want to go with them all the time, though.”

David, the eldest, said although he enjoyed his childhood, he sees repercussions.

“I left home at 22,” he said. “On the Paskowitz scale that’s very late. I guess I was either crazy or I believed in my dad’s perspective. But along the line I realized that I wasn’t maturing as a human being.

“Quite honestly I think it’s because we never actually had any intricate social contact with other people. We were this unique and unusual entity that people would just look at or talk to. For me, It was becoming too much of a lone situation. Now, my peers are thinking of property taxes after they’d purchased their home. That to me is almost an unreal situation.”

No matter how they decide to rear their offspring, most of the Paskowitz children say they’ll have a long list of bedtime stories on hand.

“We were essentially the Jungle Book story,” David said. “Every day, it was totally new. Imagine shopping everyday in a different store, 365 days a year. I think that we almost had our own little planet within ourselves. There were so many adventures.”