Our Founder's "Why"

Up until now, I have been pretty silent about my past. The goal of this organization was not to focus on me or my pain but more of a full out advocacy on the greatness my athletes and their accomplishments in the water. I am a son of immigrants. My mom grew up in extreme poverty where her first doll was made of cardboard and she slept in a bed made of cornstalk with her 5 sisters and 2 brothers. My dad was orphaned at a young age after losing his mom at the age of 2 and my maternal grandfather was a double amputee. You see, growing up as a young child I always had a hard time fitting in or making friends due to some traumatic events that had occurred in my early childhood. There will be an appropriate time to talk about those events, but not yet, because my goal is Advocacy for my Athletes. At times I was extremely depressed and suffered from separation anxiety. It was through sport I learned to cope and build friendships, and I had lots of friends…but I still struggled to fit in. I was a State Champion athlete and went on to earn a scholarship at a Division 1 NCAA wrestling program at Sacred Heart University. It’s every kid’s dream, yet I was sad and downplayed my internal struggle. I coped well and everyone viewed me as a friendly, kind, and a charismatic individual – they still do, but this doesn’t come without major internal struggle. Through a mother’s love and deep faith I was able to cope and learn strategies to make my anxiety tolerable and productive. When I found surfing, my life began to easily fall into place and I was determined to share this form of therapy called Surf Therapy.

I am not Autistic, but I was introduced to Autism while coaching a young boy who required little support most of the time, but still had limited social communication skills. Through our new friendship I realized that a lot of what Autistics feel could potentially be very similar to some of the pain that I felt growing up as a child and I was obsessed from that point on to do whatever I could to eliminate that element from their lives. That desire to fit in but being misunderstood through no fault of your own in turn causing sadness was something I never wanted another child to ever feel, EVER. I do not claim to begin to understand what it is to be autistic, but I saw a common denominator and maybe the eventual healing of my own wounds. Sure enough, I was right. I had never felt so alive as I did when coaching autistic children. Everything slowed down and it was a rush of happiness, understanding, communication, and FITTING IN. I vowed from that moment to treat all kids of all abilities with kindness, respect, dignity and friendship. To seek them out and show them that they can accomplish their every dream. I was determined to create a culture shift in the way society limited this population and demand that they pursue their every want, desire, and dream. To believe whole heartedly that they can be anything they want. My athlete, won 75+ matches and a 3x all conference and became the first member of his family to attend college and is about to graduate with his BA in Communications. I was fascinated and driven to continue to work with youth on the spectrum.

Wrestling was not the most appealing of sports and it was really gender heavy towards just the male population. I grew up surfing while spending my summers on the beaches and shores of Portugal where I became an avid surfer. The transition was natural. The ocean and surfing has just added a new dimension to my connection with children with autism. We both heal together and rejuvenate from the world outside us that doesn’t seem to quite get us. Time stands still in joy. Pure communication, compassion, and love is being exchanged out on the waves, at times without even a spoken word. Through true friendship and kindness we create a bond that I can truly call some of my athletes my BEST FRIENDS.

Today I vow to build our program locally and build an epicenter in Costa Rica for kindness, rejuvenation, and education in creating a cultural shift towards kindness for all kids of all abilities regardless of socio-economic background, language, sexual orientation or gender identity. I am committed and driven to make this paradise a reality for my athletes and have them show the world how special they truly are. They will help children across the globe and we will bring families to our camp and show them together what can be accomplished through kindness, love, happiness and friendship. Today we have some of the world’s leading researchers working on our programming and we have pioneered a different way to deliver surf therapy to children on the autism spectrum by teaching them to surf on their own and not surfing for our Athletes. We are the only contributing Surf Therapy Organization in the world approaching Surf Therapy like we do through our intimate, individualized, personalized, self empowerment method. We are empowering our Athletes to be able to use this strategy for life, rather than just getting them up on a board you control. We are building their self confidence and belief that they can accomplish any dream or goal they believe in and set their heart on. We envision great things for our future but we need your help. I hope to one day have the ability to become the full time CEO of Gnome Surf and continue to grow this organization globally, but we need the help of the Business Community, Corporate America, and Philanthropists to invest in our cause.

Join us today in creating Magic and consider getting involved with our mission. Sincerely and gratefully,

Chris Antao