Lupita Salazar, 12, stood at the water's edge Wednesday in Manhattan Beach, flinching as cold waves lapped at her ankles.
Blind since birth, the slim girl wore a colorful swimsuit with a rhinestone flower applique. She was among the first in her group of 13 students from the Braille Institute in Los Angeles willing to give surfing a try.
Troy Campbell, a surfing instructor, guided Lupita's hands around the edges, or rails, of a blue 19-foot-long board set on the sand. Her best friend, Lorena Ortega, 13, who is also blind, stood nearby listening.
Lupita could feel the soft top of the board. At Campbell's instruction, she lay down on her stomach on the board, braced herself and popped up to her knees.
Campbell then took Lupita's hand and guided her out into the surf. Once again, she climbed atop the board. Although she couldn't see the waves, she could taste the difference from the chlorinated water in the pools where she normally swims. At first, she thought she could sense when a big wave was coming, but then a few small waves surprised her.
She could feel Campbell holding the back of the board to steady her. When he told her to stand, she did, and he kept holding on, bodysurfing behind the board as Lupita surfed to shore. She smiled at the feeling of the board bouncing under her.
On the shore, Lorena waited. The girls' mothers met at the hospital and became friends not long after their daughters were each born blind.
Since they were little, Lorena had often followed her more adventurous friend. Now it was her turn to surf.
Just like Lupita, she lay on a board on the beach and practiced popping up. Lorena was more tentative, whispering to the instructor. When it came time to surf, she paused at the water's edge, bent and felt a wave.
Most who came to the beach as part of the Kanoa Aquatics camp, a free program in its ninth year of teaching blind and visually impaired students to surf, were reluctant to get into the water.
Britnee Anis, 18, of Van Nuys, dragged her feet in the wet sand as assistants tried to lead her into the water.
Anis lost her sight two years ago and is also deaf. Talking through a sign language interpreter, Anis said she came to the beach Wednesday to make friends before she starts classes at the Braille Institute in the fall.
As much as the ocean scared her, new people scared her more, Anis explained.
