Have you ever played that game with yourself where you wonder what would’ve happened if you had moved a little slower in the morning, caught the green light instead of the red one, or went home instead of stopping at that third or fourth store? Would you have run into that friend you hadn’t seen in a while? Could you have avoided your ex? Maybe you would have missed a traffic jam? On a recent trip to the beach we almost had a missed connection. This would have been a serious loss for the Rennyson family because if things hadn’t worked out the way that they did, we wouldn’t have crossed paths with Joey Lombardo.

Our family was headed to the beach again, this time in California. We were all extremely excited for this trip. Picture it: beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, beautiful people. In our minds, California is the perfect place to live and we were eager to just plunk ourselves down in Hermosa Beach for the week and pretend that we lived there. Our boys wanted surfing lessons so we did our research and found a surf school right near our hotel, or so we thought. We realized a couple days later that the lessons were not close at all, which sent us scrambling to find another place. Luckily, a helpful guy from Hermosa Surf Camp put me in touch with an instructor named Joey Lombardo. When I made the initial phone call, Joey couldn’t have been nicer. But he said something that intrigued me. I made the comment that my boys had been surfing before, just to let him know they both had a little bit of experience. His response was something like, “Oh, I always start at the beginning.” Hmm…. 

On the day of the lesson the boys couldn’t wait. We walked down to the pier, and had our first glimpse of Joey, bona fide California surfer. He was exactly how we pictured him: tan, fit, in a wet suit, and ready to go. He stated that the boys wouldn’t be getting in the water right off the bat, so my husband and I sat a good distance away and glanced over occasionally to see how the lesson was progressing. As I sat there watching, I began to realize the boys were in the presence of someone special. He helped them into their wet suits and then they talked for a while; they slowly made their way down to the edge of the water, where they worked on balance, style and form. He shared his philosophy on surfing: that it was an art form, full of beauty and grace; that the nature that surrounds us was to be appreciated.  Eventually they tackled the waves, and sure enough, both boys got up and were surfing by the end of the lesson. Joey said that using what they learned, they could go out and surf anywhere in the world…

So what did they learn? In my mind, I summed it up like this. Start at the beginning, forget everything you thought you knew (about surfing) learn the basics before jumping in and use your knowledge and new-found confidence to ride the waves (of life). Did Joey know that the boys needed to find that confidence again? Did he know that this pandemic robbed them of time with their friends, allowed loneliness and anxiety to creep in, and derailed some of their plans? Of course not. For a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon in California, both of my boys looked like a huge weight had been lifted off of their shoulders. They looked carefree, relaxed and genuinely happy. They got their spirit back. And we owe it all to Joey Lombardo.