Meeting the Challenge of the Sea Without Seeing

Joe Carillo, 14, left, one of 21 students in the Braille Institute’s summer recreation program, negotiates the surf at Santa Monica beach. Below, Carillo begins to slip off his board as instructor Todd Roberts looks on. Above, Carillo gets a pat on the head from Roberts for his effort. Roberts and Mike Pierson, co-owners of a local surf shop, provided the surfboards and instruction free of charge to the students as part of their own project to help sightless youths shatter limitations their blindness imposes on them.

In addition to surfing, the summer program involves the students, ages 8 to 19, in rock climbing, bicycling and roller skating. The youths took to surfing with varying degrees of confidence and skill: Some clung to their surfboards and refused to venture into the surf. Others, like Carillo, paddled out without hesitation and gamely rode the waves back to shore. “It felt pretty good, but it was scary,” said Carillo. “You had to try hard to keep your balance, and the water was rumbling.”