www.montereycountynow.com OCTOBER 1-7, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 5 831 Jeff Smallwood gets up early on Saturdays. On Sept. 19, he’s been up since about 6am checking surf reports and deciding which beach to head to. “If the waves are too big we’ll go to the beach near Wharf 2,” he says. On this day, in a couple of hours, a school bus is going to meet him at Los Padres Elementary School to take him and 27 kids to Casa Verde Beach in Monterey, but not before breakfast burritos from El Charrito arrive to fuel up the day. By 9:30am, volunteers have met Smallwood and the East Salinas kids at the tiny parking lot on the corner of Tide Avenue and Beach Way in Monterey’s Del Monte Beach Neighborhood. There, they hand out wetsuits and rash guards to the kids, who range in age from fourth-graders to high schoolers. As Smallwood opens the bins and starts pulling out wetsuits and green rash guards to match sizes to participants in the Salinas Surf Club, other volunteers arrive with coffee from Six Over Coffee Co. and pastries and from Ad Astra to set out on a table on the beach. “We really rely on our small businesses to make this day even more special for our kids and our volunteers,” Smallwood says. The Salinas Surf Club is a grassroots organization that’s been busing kids from Salinas out to the beach for more than 11 years. The mission is simple: for six or seven Saturdays per school year, give Salinas Valley children a chance to come to the beach, learn about ocean safety, and get them on a surfboard to have fun. Smallwood says in addition to the over-a-dozen volunteers who show up in wetsuits and red rash guards, the organization partners with the California State Parks Peace Officers and California State Parks Lifeguards, who provide training to the volunteers. Kids participate at no cost to their families. “Some kiddos have been surfing with us for about six years, and for some, this is their first day ever being in the ocean,” Smallwood says. Because of the range of experience, Smallwood says it’s important to let children discover the ocean at their own pace. Some are confident on the first day and are ready to get on a board larger than they are as a volunteer coaches them. But if kids don’t want to get in the water the first day, that’s OK too. Julian Elizalde and Fernando Carmona, both 13 years old, are the former. They’ve been coming to the Salinas Surf Club outings for four years. “The first time I was pretty nervous because of the ocean, you know?” says Elizalde, who didn’t know how to swim when he first showed up. He says he overcame his fear of the ocean during that first year. Carmona agrees, despite already knowing how to swim when he started. Still, he says, the ocean instilled a fear in him to overcome, which he did. Though East Salinas is only a little more than 20 miles from the beach, Smallwood says transportation is the biggest barrier to getting kids out there. For many, the Salinas Surf Club is their first exposure to swimming as a life-preserving skill. As the morning progresses, some children in wetsuits are already wading into the whitewater and splashing around before volunteer James Welsh calls them into a circle where a row of surfboards and bodyboards are lying on the beach. Once gathered, the volunteers are on the oceanside facing the kids, whose eyes are toward the ocean, and Welsh begins leading them through a series of stretches and warmup exercises. The kids get a little distracted by the sight of a pod of three or four dolphins swimming by in the knee- to shoulder-high waves on this overcast morning. Once Welsh goes over how to properly pop up on a surfboard, the kids quickly grab their preferred board and go with volunteers into the ocean. Some are one-on-one while others are in small groups. Carmona and Elizalde are among the small groups, and say they are hoping to learn some new tricks for the day. Elizalde is training to stand up on one leg while surfing, while Carmona wants to catch some waves and get some photos doing it. While the two boys dive into the waves, several others are already being pushed into waves by volunteers. Some ride in on their belly while others are quick to stand up. Surf’s Up The all-volunteer Salinas Surf Club gives kids from East Salinas a chance to experience the ocean. By Sloan Campi “For some, this is their first day ever being in the ocean.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE STEVE SOUZA At Casa Verde Beach in Monterey, volunteers with the Salinas Surf Club let children from Salinas discover surfing and the ocean at their own pace. Some participants start out with no swimming knowledge but eventually learn to stand up on waves. Business is Better Together CONNECT. GROW. BELONG. Build meaningful connections, increase your visibility, and access the resources your business needs to thrive. Join the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce today! montereychamber.com • info@montereychamber.com • 831.648.5350 JOIN NOW
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