Camp for autistic youth at OCC’s Waterfront Campus in Newport Beach fills kids’ sails with confidence, camaraderie
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Complex tasks like tearing down and rebuilding a Dodge V8 come naturally to Shaun Waters, but it’s a challenge for the 11-year-old with autism spectrum disorder to read textbooks, said his mother, Heather Waters. And before his diagnosis about two years ago, he had a hard time fitting in with other students.
Misunderstandings between classmates occasionally led to arguments. And Shaun froze, overwhelmed by the moment whenever school staff asked him to explain his side of things. His silence was a symptom of a condition repeatedly mistaken for insubordination, his mother said.
The Hawaiian Gardens family now homeschools their son, and they work hard to find ways to supplant the opportunities for social development he might have otherwise struggled with at a traditional campus. So they jumped at the chance to sign him up to learn how to sail at a three-day camp hosted by the nonprofit Spectrum Sailing and the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship.
“His brain is very mechanical, the way it works,” Heather Waters said. “So something like this is right up his alley because he pays a lot of attention to details when it’s something new and interesting to him.”
The self-described grease monkey said he had never been on a sailboat before. But by Thursday, the last day of camp, he and two other children on the spectrum took turns operating the rigging and the rudder of a small vessel cruising Newport Harbor under the guidance of Spectrum Sailing volunteer Jon Wu and Orange Coast College instructor Kaelyn Ibold.
The kids giggled as they occasionally whipped the boat around to do “donuts,” steered toward packs of wary ducks and pelicans or joked with each other about megalodons and cannonballs. But they mostly stayed on course, and under Ibold’s clear and patient instruction Shaun even managed to safely pilot the vessel to dock.
“We measure success very differently for every kid,” Spectrum Sailing founder Scott Herman said. “You saw today there were kids tacking the boat on their own on the third day of learning to sail. And we had some other kids who, just showing up today to be at the class was a success.”
Their camps use sailing as a vehicle to help children with autism build confidence while learning how to work in teams, make friends and other valuable life lessons, Herman said. They embrace participants with a community of other youth on the spectrum as well as adults who understand what it’s like to care for someone with the condition.
Herman is also the parent of an autistic child and created the nonprofit seven years ago in South Carolina because there were no sailing programs in the area willing to enroll his son. He said bout 70 people rushed to apply for 10 spots at their first camp.
The nonprofit grew rapidly, and this year it’s scheduled to host as many as 250 children on the spectrum at camps in 10 cities ranging as far east as Boston, Herman said. Spots tend to fill up well ahead of the beginning of instruction, which Herman cites as proof of the need to create and support more programs empowering youth on the spectrum.
“These kids don’t get these kinds of victories. They’re not the kids with 100 trophies in their room or 50 camp shirts in their drawer because they’ve been to a million programs,” Herman said. “There’s nothing for these kids. So the fact they can come here and be successful is huge for them.
“These kids are not yacht club kids who happen to have autism,” he continued. “They don’t have a parent or grandparent that’s a sailor. So for these kids, some of them have never put on a life jacket, never been on a boat. For them to have an opportunity to do something no one in their family can do and be successful at it, it’s a huge boost to their self esteem.”
This is the second year Herman’s organization has held a camp with the OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship at the college’s Waterfront Campus in Newport Beach. About 20 kids from Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, as well as one from the Bay Area, took part this time around.
The sense of accomplishment and friendships campers earned will set them up to overcome challenges they faces in the future, even if some of them never step foot on a dock again, Herman said. However, at least four reached out to the School of Sailing and Seamanship’s staff about classes to help them explore a newfound passion for being on the water, the Waterfront Campus’s director, Justin Dion, said.
Dion said he hopes to continue working with Spectrum Sailing to help expose the autistic community to the joys of boating. He added that the college also partners with outside organizations to offer classes to disadvantaged youth in addition to their public summer sessions.
“We’re always looking at ways to engage the youth,” Dion said. “I think sailing sometimes has a bit of a reputation for being kind of a rich guy’s activity or a rich guy’s sport. We want to spread the message that sailing is for everyone.”
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