WSMS Camp Week 1 Recap

Photo Gallery & Stories...

Alec Zappone
June 13, 2025

Howdy Surf Camp Families!

Can you believe it? We are already done with our 2nd week of Summer… That’s CRAZY!!

For those of you who are new to our community, every week of camp we have a photographer come out on Thursdays to shoot photos of both the Main Camp and Micro Grom’s Camp. Then we take these photos and upload them to an online photo gallery for all of the parents! If you follow the link below you will see our Week 1 gallery.

We chose to use this third party gallery because of the additional options available for parents to order prints of their kiddos surfing shipped straight to their house, how rad is that!? Each parents gets 5 free downloads from the gallery so you can have them for your own use. If you find there are more than 5 photos on there you want to download, let us know and we will help you out!

Scroll down to read a couple sweet stories from the first week of camp for the 2025 season…

We still have a few spaces left for next week, we haven’t quite sold out yet!!

The First Week of Our 2025 Season!!

Week 1 is always an exciting time at The WSMS Surf Art Camp.

Everyone is overflowing with excitement including our instructors, and the vibes are always SO HIGH! We have such a specific routine that we follow at our camp that it doesn’t take long at all for everyone to fall right back into the groove. Our repeat students are SO good at setting an example for our first time students and it ALWAYS makes us so proud to see it. We strive to be a fully inclusive surf camp and we are grateful that our students uphold those values with how they treat new students.

This week we had a pretty rough go with the weather but we prevailed and were able to get through the week with no cancellations.

We started the summer with a RECORD BREAKING week of attendance!

We had 38 kiddos in our main camp and 6 Micro Groms, that’s 44 students total for week 1. THAT’S WILD!

If you would’ve told me we would have 40+ kids attending our Surf Art camp the first or second year we got started, I’m not sure I would’ve believe you!

Special Moments in Week 1

Every week there are some stand out moments that stick with us for a long time. This season we have decided to share these moments with our surf families!

This photo says it all. This is what it means to come to surf camp right here. Playing in the ocean with your friends smiling ear to ear!! We promote surf play as much as possible because we believe it stimulates progression more than being hyper focused on performance. Its not easy to tandem ride while sitting down, though CeCe and Lucy make it look so easy and fun!!

Every week of a camp there are a few students who find their inner courage to take on surfing for the first time ever and man is it a special thing to be apart of! Truman here has been around surfing and the ocean for quite sometime now but hadn’t quite felt the confidence to get out there and charge into the waves. This week that ALL changed. The slow growth path paid off as he not only found his inner confidence but he totally CRUSHED it. We always tell parents that when a student chooses surfing on their own as opposed to being forced or overly encouraged to do so, that they progress 3x faster and that was the case this week with Truman. GO TRUMAN!!!

Over the past 7 years we have had students progress from first timers to instructors, which has always been a BIG goal of ours. To have the students grow up and pass the stoke onto the next generation. This year we had 2 long term students of our transition into being instructors while their youngest brother Zane, pictured above, attended his first session as a MICRO GROM. SO COOL!!

Week 1 Micro Groms was SO EPIC. All the instructors and I came to the conclusion that it couldn’t have run any smoother. Perfect waves, amazing behavior and engagement!

There was a very special moment this week that brought tears to one of our instructors eyes.

While walking up on the 2nd and final day of micro groms, one of the little shredders looked up to the instructors he was holding hands with to cross the road and said: “This is the best day of my life, I love you guys.”

The instructor who described this event to me had tears in her eyes and said she now understands why we do what we do with this group and how much of an impact it has on these kiddos.

We would love some feedback from your experience with us!

If your kiddo had a great time with us we would GREATLY appreciate a google review as it helps bring in more families who are in need of a service like this. Click the link below to leave us a review!