Kids with autism got to splash around and catch some waves. The children were participating in the 6th annual Surfers Healing Camp, an event that pairs children with autism and professional surfers for a day of fun at the beach.

“You can just tell when the kids go out there they just feel very free,” Shannon Proctor whose 6-year-old son has autism, told WCSC. “They don’t have to worry about anything. They are one with the water.”

Pro surfer Izzy Paskowitz, founder of Surfers Healing Camp, has a son with autism named Isaiah. He found that the beach and being out on the water had positive and calming effects on his son, and he wanted to share the experience with other children who have autism spectrum disorders. Now, Surfers Healing Camps happen throughout the year at different surf spots in the U.S.

“I always wanted my son to be included to his best capacity,” Paskowitz told ESPN. “There were so many things that he couldn’t do. It’s mostly the ocean and being in the water and feeling the waves and the sensation and the sensory aspect of the ocean.

“The surfing part of it is something magic that the volunteers and years of surfing on my part, it was right under our noses the whole time, that that was something that was very important to Isaiah.”

(Source @ Daily Saint – Photo via ESPN)