City Surf Project Sharing the stoke of surfing with San Francisco students
S
an Francisco’s Johnny Irwin always hoped to make a positive impact on society. It wasn’t until he graduated from college and gave traditional teaching a go that he found his true calling: teaching students about what he knows best—surfing. Covering everything from how to pop up on a board to the historic past of wave riding, Irwin has developed a curriculum for a surfing elective class at
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By NEAL KEARNEY
a growing number of Bay Area schools, and shows no sign of stopping there. The idea was born at Leadership High School, located in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, where Irwin took a job teaching social studies in 2012. As a white man in a position of authority at an ethnically diverse school, Irwin worried about being accepted by his students. “There was a huge sense of distrust,” Irwin remembers. “I’m the
kind of person that symbolizes a lot of the fears and anger that is a reality for a lot of these kids.” The relationship improved over time, but he was still finding it difficult to connect with his students. Enter City Surf Project. The program was the result of a Leadership spirit event in which teachers organize a week of educational activities that can be taught outdoors. It was in this special setting that Irwin realized he could