After making the long drive from Las Vegas to Southern California, a calendar mix up almost prevented nine-year-old Connor Schriever from surfing Malibu’s pristine waves. But thanks to quick thinking by organizers with the Mauli Ola Foundation, the young cystic fibrosis patient experienced something most beginning surfers only dream of — a one-on-one surf lesson with a local legend.
“He said it was better than going to Disneyland,” said Allen Sarlo, the “keeper of Malibu” who stepped in on Saturday, Sept. 20 to give Connor a private surf lesson at Surfrider Beach.
Schriever and his family hit the road the week of Sept. 15, planning a few days of fun, including a visit to Disneyland and California Adventure. The week would culminate with a Surf Experience Day in Malibu for Connor and other cystic fibrosis patients.
Cystic fibrosis causes a heavy mucus buildup in the lungs, and saline/saltwater treatments help break up the buildup. For patients like Connor, getting to play in the ocean is a natural treatment for something he spends nearly three hours treating every day.
According to his mother, Connor wakes up 90 minutes before his eight-year-old brother and goes through breathing, saline and pulsating treatments to help with the genetic disease before heading off to school where he’s a straight-A fourth-grader. He goes through a similar routine at bedtime, too.
Connor had participated in the surf event in 2012 and 2013 and loved it, and Charla and Matt Schriever, Connor’s parents, were positive the Surf Experience Day was scheduled this year on Sept. 20. This would be the third year in a row Connor participated in the day. Mauli Ola holds similar events for cystic fibrosis patients throughout the U.S. and has helped more than 1,300 cystic fibrosis patients since 2007 get up on a surfboard.
“[Charla] saw a Surf Experience Day that was set for Sept. 20 in Malibu, and we were thinking about taking a trip to go to California to go to Disneyland anyway, so we registered him,” Matt Schriever told The Malibu Times.
But on Sept. 19, while double-checking for the location of the event, Charla noticed the website now said the next Surf Experience Day was scheduled for Sept. 27 — the next weekend. She and her husband scrambled to contact organizers, sending an email to a general information address.
“I said … ‘is there a Surf Experience Day tomorrow? Because we registered for it and we drove out from Las Vegas,’” Matt Schriever recalled. In less than 20 minutes, he had a response in his inbox letting them know it had been rescheduled to Sept. 27 and Mauli Ola leaders wanted to help get Connor re-registered.
But the Schrievers weren’t sure they could drive out for a second consecutive weekend.
When Mauli Ola Foundation Vice President Kala Alexander caught wind of the situation that night, he told the Schrievers, “I know some people in Malibu, let me see what I can do.”
Not wanting to get Connor’s hopes up, Matt promised take Connor and his siblings to swim and play in the ocean, but they would have to skip this year’s surf event.
“He was pretty devastated but he’s kind of the boy where you can tell where he’s emotional, devastated about it, but doesn’t want to show it,” his dad said.
That sorrow turned to pure joy the next morning when Alexander reached out again to let the Schrievers know Allen Sarlo, an original Dogtown Z-Boy skateboard group member and a hugely familiar face in the surf community, would be meeting them at Surfrider Beach for a private lesson.
“Connor went from disappointed, trying not to cry the night before, to then being just all smiles and really excited,” his mother said.
So, they arrived at Surfrider and came face-to-face with Sarlo, who has been involved with Mauli Ola for two years.
“The waves were perfect, little three-foot waves, just perfect little waves, and it wasn’t that crowded,” Sarlo said. “He didn’t bring a wetsuit but the water was really warm anyway.”
For Sarlo, being a part of Connor’s surf experience was equally rewarding.
“He was so stoked, he had this big smile on his face,” Sarlo said. “It was awesome.”
A week later, the Surf Experience Day went off without a hitch, where hundreds of volunteers and cystic fibrosis patients turned out at Surfrider to help create more priceless memories for young budding surfers.
To learn more about the Mauli Ola Foundation and other surf events, visit mauliola.org.
