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Along South Texas’ coastline, catching a wave can be a right of passage for the Rio Grande Valley’s youth. For the region’s youngest groms, the sport builds confidence and resilience while fostering a lifelong connection to the ocean. Families here are passing the art from one generation to the next, ensuring the tradition inspires perseverance for decades to come.
Noah Jud, 7, has been surfing ever since he was in his mother’s belly. The difficulty of surfing while pregnant didn’t keep his mother, LaVida, a lifelong Gulf Coast surfer, out of the waves, all those years ago.
She and her husband, Keith, another surfer for life in the Valley, have been showing their son the magic hidden in the tide since before he could walk.
But in this last year, the Juds have watched a change in their son: He’s taking surfing more seriously, and as he hones his skills, his self-confidence is beginning to blossom.
With every wave, surfing teaches a new lesson, says Keith, like how to conquer your fears for years to come.
“Surfing is not an easy sport,” he said. “And it’s also a life-long sport.”
With surfing playing such a huge role in LaVida and Keith’s lives, sharing the love for the sport with their son was a no-brainer. Surfing is their lifestyle, LaVida says, and they wanted to bring Noah into their world fueled by waves.
A special memory for the ocean-bound mother took place off Isla Blanca Park when Noah was only 2 years old. Born and raised island-side, taking her son to the beach was a regular occurrence.
It was something they could enjoy together. And she could prune him to shred the surf as he grew older, but for now, she mainly played it safe, attempting to grow her boy’s confidence in the water.
That day in particular there was a clean swell — not too big. She paddled right next to the jetties, with little 25-pound Noah on her board. The lineup was packed, and LaVida says everyone was looking at her like she was crazy.
But not Noah. With the sense of safety that comes from being a child beside their mother, and the thrill of the tide, Noah was all smiles.
Over her shoulder, she saw it — a wave offering the perfect opportunity. LaVida dropped in with commitment, and she and her son, together, rode the most epic face of a wave.
“Noah had his little floaties on and we were going so fast that his legs dug into the water and the whole lineup just started cheering,” LaVida narrated with infectious joy from the memory that would prove to be one of many.
Now that he’s older, surfing is a little more serious. LaVida and Keith have watched Noah grow more motivated and become more of a team-player around the house, enticed by the privilege of hitting the beach with his family.
Noah says surfing simply makes him happy. When he nails a good wave, it makes him proud of himself. He says the ocean has taught him to be brave.
And Noah isn’t the only grom learning strength, self-reliance, and how to overcome amidst the Gulf Coast tide.
Surf Instructor Annie Zeiler said Noah’s experience is one she sees repeatedly. Children who are sometimes initially hesitant often leave the water standing taller after riding their first wave, as observed at the Texas Surfrider Foundation’s free surf lesson event in June in recognition of Go Surf Day.
Zeiler says this year a team of volunteers helped around 25 kids catch a wave at Isla Blanca.
She shared how along with promoting high self-esteem, surfing from a young age also encourages children to care about the environment.
“It helps kids develop a connection with the ocean,” she said. “And when you get kids to enjoy doing something, they’ll be more likely to protect it.”
She emphasized that it’s important to consider safety when learning to surf. She says new surfers need to watch out for other people in the water, to be cautious of rip currents, and to pay attention to the weather conditions.
“When in doubt, don’t go out,” Zeiler said.
Families living along the coastline have an advantage for the sport, and Keith and LaVida advise that it’s important to make the most of the beach in order to experience something “organic” and “natural” in a distracted, technology-driven world.
“Getting out in what God has made for us is a beautiful thing no matter where you live,” Keith said.
The confidence they have watched grow in Noah is something the Juds have seen in other kids in the Island’s tight-knit surfing community. They have found that catching a wave is immediate reinforcement of personal capability. LaVida says children’s eyes light up with “pure bliss and excitement” as the sport shows them what they can accomplish.
When parents teach their children to surf, it spiritually invites them into their kids’ world of “play,” LaVida has observed. It offers an opportunity to connect with a sense of adventure and “share the stoke.”
Beyond building confidence, the Juds say surfing offers emotional and mental benefits for both children and parents in South Texas.
LaVida says surfing has the potential to promote better mental health because it promotes physical activity, calms the mind, and utilizes breath work.
With the physical sensations of weightlessness and the melodic sound of waves crashing, surfing offers serenity away from the screens plaguing day-to-day life, LaVida said. Water brings calm to the sensory system. She drew parallels to how people are 75% water, and spend the first months of their lives swimming in the water of their mother’s womb.
She described surfing as a healthy, ancient stimuli, compared to the constant stimuli introduced by modern society’s screen-dependency.
And yet within the peace, there is thrill.
“There’s something about the friction-free motion of gliding across a wave, and feeling the power underneath you, that’s hard to describe, but has affected millions of surfers all over the world for generations and generations — especially in our community,” Keith said.
“There’s this force that’s bigger than yourself,” LaVida added. “You understand the energy that’s moving around you.”
Protecting the beaches where these memories are made has become just as important to the family as surfing itself.
Between sessions full of stoke, the family advocates to keep beaches open to the public. Living on South Padre Island, they have experienced firsthand how frequent beach closures tied to SpaceX operations at Boca Chica limit public access to the coast they adore. Those closures have fueled their commitment to the Texas Open Beaches Act through public awareness and education efforts.
“It’s been an uphill battle,” LaVida said.
She advises parents who are thinking about teaching their kids to surf to remember that it is important to meet them where they are at, to be patient, and to be prepared for wipe outs.
“That comes with the territory,” she said.
Catching waves is a multi-generational affair for LaVida’s family, as her step dad still gets out in the surf at age 75. She says surfing keeps you young at heart, and keeps you physically healthy, but also keeps you honest and humble through all of life’s curveballs.
“When you get out there, all those other things kind of just melt away,” she said. “It can be just you and your board.”
The Juds believe the greatest lessons surfing teaches sticks with kids long after a ride is over. It teaches surfers how to handle the weight of life, LaVida explained.
“We are teaching Noah this: If you really get nervous and you really feel scared, you can always bail from your board, and go down into the ocean and when that wave passes over you, it gets real quiet and calm,” LaVida said. “And you can just hold your breath, and float, and come back up, and take another breath. I think that is a great metaphor for life.”