The Natural

Chase Deegan, 7

Chase: I do surfing, skim boarding, boogie boarding, swimming. I like them because they're fun, and I like to be in the water. I like surfing the best. Most of the kids I surf with are a little older, nine or ten. I guess I'm good at it because I have good balance, and I think it's kind of easy.
Melanie: Chase walked at eleven months, and when he was one and a half, we had to lock our garage door because he would go in and get his older brother Cole's skateboard to try out the half-pipe ramp we had in the backyard for Cole.

Chase: I go to the beach almost every day in the summertime. My whole family does. My dad and brother taught me how to surf. My brother does all the same stuff I do, only better.

Melanie: Chase's father taught him to surf and snowboard the same year, when he was four. The whole family snowboards. We have a place in Camelback in the Poconos, and we go up there every weekend from Christmas on. Both Chase and his sister, Alexa, qualified for the national snowboarding competition out in Copper Mountain, Colorado, this spring. Chase did pretty well. In the Ruggies division, for kids seven and under, he finished in the top ten in three of the four disciplines he qualified to compete in. At first he was disappointed with that. He's accustomed to first place in the Poconos. I told him, 'Look, you're competing with kids who have ski mountains in their backyards.'

Chase: Snowboarding and surfing are kind of the same, but they're also kind of different. They're the same because you're riding on snow and you're riding on water. But they're different because the water moves, and the snow stays where it is.

Melanie: He competes in surfing, too. He's competed in the Brendan Borek Surf Memorial in Avalon for the last two or three years. He placed second in 2007, in the Squirts category for kids nine and under. He also competes in the Nun's Beach Surf Invitational in Stone Harbor.

Skim boarding he taught himself. With that you have a slim, flat board. You stand on the shore and watch the tide come in, and run with the board, then throw it and ride along the top of the water, doing tricks, 360s, spin arounds, flips. Unfortunately, there aren't any skim-board competitions in our area.

Typically, a day at the beach with Chaseand there are many, because we live only about a mile from the beachmeans loading up the truck with surf, skim, and boogie boards. He just goes from one to the other, all day long. Everyone stops and watches him skim or ride the waves on his surfboard, I guess because he's so little and started doing it at such a young age.

Up to this point, he hasn't had any serious injuries. He doesn't have fear, but he's smart about it and knows his limitations. He always wears a helmet to snowboard and skateboard. He knows what he does is dangerous and doesn't want to get hurt, because he wants to continue doing these things.

He's a really happy kid. He skips and runs everywhere he goes. He's compassionate and very strong-minded. He plays soccer, and I've been trying to talk him into playing tennis, but he's not interested. He has no desire to play basketball, and baseball bores him to tears. This is what he loves, and that's part of the reason he's so good at it, he just loves it so much.

Chase: When I grow up, I want to be a professional snowboarder or skateboarder, or maybe a surfer. I'm going to try and go to the Extreme Games when I get older.

Melanie: I think he'd love to pursue surfing or snowboarding as a career. But it's such a hard thing, so few people make it to that level. A lot of this is fun, and if something comes of it, great. But I tell him, academics come first.

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