Adaptive surfing in Long Beach, with sprinkles

If you took a walk on the boardwalk on Aug. 15 and strolled past the Skudin Surf shop, you no doubt saw the massive crowd spilling into the bike lane, and a Dunkin’ iced coffee with legs wandering around. But why?

Just over a year ago, Brandon Klein, who volunteers with Long Beach’s Surf for All, had an idea: an inclusive surfboard with a seat, to help those with special needs learn to surf.

Klein, a junior at Jericho High School at the time, did some research, and found the British organization Cerebra, which helps children with brain conditions and has designed innovative surfboards. At first glance, Klein was astonished. He asked Cerebra if Surf for All could buy any of the boards. But Cerebra had only made only one overseas, as a project. Nonetheless, they offered Klein the blueprints for it.

The blueprints weren’t the only aspect of the project to come from the United Kingdom. Klein; Mike Becker, the owner of Nature’s Shapes Custom Surfboards, in Sayville; and the team that constructed the board also received a custom seat from Tillett Racing in Kent, England. The seat is comparable to those used in racecars, and is adjustable, so the board can be used by surfers of various ages and sizes.

Klein worked on the project while completing his schoolwork, raised money for it through a GoFundMe page and bake sales, and debuted the first adaptive board last June on the boardwalk. At the time, Klein said it was believed to be the first one in North America.

Earlier this year, Dunkin’s Joy in Childhood Foundation got wind that Klein was planning to reveal a second board. Last week on the boardwalk, Klein, now a newly minted high school graduate, debuted the new adaptive board, with some help from Dunkin’.

“I want to thank everyone for coming to show support,” he told the crowd outside the Skudin shop, at Riverside Boulevard. “I really want to thank Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation for the opportunity, for funding the board, and just doing everything. I want to thank Surf for All for all the support that they were always giving me, and I’d like to thank my family, just for being there, always supporting me.”

The newest board, also shaped by Mike Becker, of Nature’s Shapes, is a bit different from the one Klein introduced a year ago. The first version was white and blue. This one is also white, but with painted sprinkles, resembling a Dunkin’ vanilla frosted donut.

The foundation also presented Klein and Cliff Skudin, a co-founder of Surf for All, with a check for $25,000.

The new adaptive board, Skudin said, “has all the different tools to get more people in the water and surf. Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood is really the spearhead of this, with their support. This has been incredible.”

Jeff Polizotto, a Dunkin’ franchisee, said that a few of his colleagues live in Long Beach, and have helped spread the word about the work Surf for All does with children and adults with special needs. Once foundation leaders heard about the idea, and the work Klein was doing, they jumped in and funded the whole thing.

“What they do is, they provide funds for us to continue to be in the modern, adaptive world,” Dr. Jeanine Sorensen, a member of Surf for All’s board of directors, said of the foundation, “and continue to be innovative with our surfers.”

For his part, Klein will attend UNC Chapel Hill this fall, where he will be an Innovation Scholar. UNC created its Innovation Scholarships in 2009, to recruit students who are promising innovators and entrepreneurs.