While many of their classmates were playing basketball and football this year, a group of students at Morgan Park Middle School were learning the art of catching waves.
Despite the lack of access to actual whitecaps, the Morgan Park Surf Club has been going strong for four years under the tutelage of Richard McNabney, a special education assistant at the school and a hardcore local surfer.
"Surfing changes your life," McNabney said. "It gives you peace of mind like nothing else. There's no cell phone, just you and nature bobbing up and down."
Of course, students in the club don't actually get to experience that natural serenity -- their training is confined to the Morgan Park swimming pool -- but McNabney, who surfs Lake Superior's waves as long as the ice allows, said they learn the basics that could some day lead them to open water.
Students learn about rip currents, surfing etiquette and how to wax their surfboards. Then they hop in the pool, where they use two of McNabney's old surfboards to learn how to paddle and eventually stand up on the board.
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"To see that expression on their face the first time they stand up ... it's an ear-to-ear smile. It's awesome," McNabney said.
Most of the five to 25 students involved -- it varies weekly -- have skateboarding experience, which makes it easier to find their balance on the surfboards.
"It's like riding a skateboard on the water. ... You just try and get your feet as close to the middle as possible, like you're balancing on a pole," said Kevin Potter, a seventh-grader in the club who said he plans to check out the waves at Lake Superior this summer. "It's really fun."
Potter encouraged fellow club members in the pool on Tuesday, the last meeting day before the club's end of the year luau next week.
"Get up Bryce -- try getting up, you can do it," Potter shouted to sixth-grader Bryce Hair as he attempted to stand on the board. He broke into applause when Hair found his balance.
Teaching the students to encourage one another is part of the club's philosophy, McNabney said.
"They learn about the Hawaiian culture of surfing, where it first came from, which is about always giving back and respecting each other," he said. "That's the surfer mentality."
Algin Goodsky, a sixth-grader, said the surfer mentality has helped him find balance off the surf board.
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"I can hold my temper back more now and relax," he said.
That's what the club is really about, McNabney said: giving students a safe place to relax and have fun together.
"They just love it. ... It takes them into a whole new world."
