Local Author, Champion Surfer to Visit Port Washington

See Port Washington author Daniel Paisner and World Champion Longboard Surfer and Autism Advocate Izzy Paskowitz at Landmark on Main Street Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. 

Co-authors Paskowitz and Paisner will discuss their book, "Scratching the Horizon: A Surfer's Life,” as part of the Landmark's Conversation from Main Street series. 

On the agenda: life, surfing and what the co-authors' publicity materials describe as the "hang-loose, extreme Special Ed approach that has made Surfers Healing a leading light for thousands of families with children on the autism spectrum." Books will be for sale at the event, thanks to Dolphin Bookshop, a co-sponsor of the event.

Raised in a 24-foot camper with his parents and eight siblings, Paskowitz managed to make his mark as a competitive surfer and autism advocate.

According to Landmark’s webpage:

“In the late 1950s, his Stanford-educated father stepped away from a successful medical practice and decided to raise his family off the grid. Izzy and his siblings weren't even home-schooled - they were surf-schooled. They bounded from beach to beach, from coast to coast, in search of the perfect wave, the perfect vibe, living like a colony of feral surf rats. Their vagabonding, bohemian existence embodied the free spirit of 1960s California surf culture, and the Paskowitzes came to be known as the first family of American surfing. They were often broke, and almost always hungry, but they found a rhythm in the waves that helped to knit the family together and keep them whole. As the fourth-oldest child in a family of inveterate surfers, rock stars and beach bums, Izzy Paskowitz now shines a light on a childhood that has come to symbolize the surfing credo, a reckless young adulthood that nearly cost him his sanity, and a maturing sense of self and purpose that allows him to lift others on the back of his experience. As the father of a son with autism and the founder of Surfers Healing, a foundation devoted to expanding the horizons of children with autism through surfing, he has found a way to connect the surreal aspects of his childhood to the harsh realities of adulthood.”

All Conversations from Main Street events are free and open to the public, thanks to the support of Angela & Scott Jaggar Foundation.