Summer Camps are a safe place outside of school where kids and teens make new friends, forge lasting memories, and learn new skills. Positive mentors and role models in the form of professional coaches are invaluable within camps, because it is an environment where children grow and inherit lifelong values.
Are your kids influenced by cell phones, social media, video games, movies, and other media that surround us daily? Does the amount of time spent on technology shape their perspective, habits and lifestyle?
Kids from the ages of 8 – 12 spend up to 30 hours per week watching TV programs, or playing games on an electronic device. The numbers rise with teenagers, as they devote roughly 45 hours per week to entertainment on screens, splitting their time between a laptop, tablet, and their phone.
During formative years, youths are impressionable and absorb influences from the sources around them. Kids pick mentors, icons, and role models (besides their parents). Whether it’s a sensei, a coach, a teacher or a camp counselor, parents can help choose/guide their kids to positive figures and influences through enrollment in camps, sports, and extracurricular activities.
Often overlooked and undervalued, is the significant role summer camps play in the development of kids and teens. They may instill a love of the outdoors and a sense of independence, which may help youths learn to embrace a balance between video games (media) and palm trees (nature). With Aqua Surf, students also diversify their peer group by spending time with a variety of age ranges and an array of people from different backgrounds (e.g. campers visiting from abroad).
Aqua Surf summer camps give kids and teens freedom and a sense of personal responsibility that their coaches instill as they advance in their surfing. From riding waves with instructors, to being in control of their own surfboard, and eventually catching their own waves. The growth process is astounding as students naturally mature through our surfing program.
Our expert coaches guide our students through summer as each camper develops at their own rate. The team reinforces key formative ideologies like: the importance of sharing, kindness and honesty, encouraging and supporting others, behaving with integrity, and being respectful. These values are taught as campers play beach games, surf, swim, or are being responsible for their surf equipment. Instructors give motivate, support and cheer on campers, while offering positive feedback on how they can improve their surfing.
The summer camp job goes beyond that of a counselor/instructor that watches kids. It is our position that camp counselors must be positive and healthy role models, because shape our future generation. That’s why Aqua Surf is privileged to invest money and time in recruiting, hiring, and training employees that match our values both in and out of the water for our summer camps.
Camp is where memories, friends, and adventures are had when outstanding mentors lead. We encourage parents to continue discovering camps and programs that support their kids during summer, because it is an unparalleled time of growth, treasured self-discovery, and unforgettable fun for kids.
