A Conversation with Izzy Paskowitz and Daniel Paisner World Champion Longboard Surfer and Autism Advocate

A Conversation with World Champion Longboard Surfer and Autism Advocate Izzy Paskowitz and Daniel Paisner.  Co-Presented by The Dolphin Bookshop who will sell books at the event.

Izzy Paskowitz's story is crazy-unique: he was raised in a 24-foot camper with his parents and eight siblings and somehow found a way to make his mark as a competitive surfer and a leading autism advocate. 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. He'll be joined on the Landmark stage by Port Washington-resident Daniel Paisner, co-author of Izzy's book, "Scratching the Horizon: A Surfer's Life," for a wickedly entertaining conversation about life and surfing and 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. 

Free Admission to this and all Conversations From Main Street thanks to the generous support of the Angela & Scott Jaggar Foundation.