My name is Beth (Parry) Schub. I’ll be 75 in January.
My uncle was a lifeguard at Gilgo Beach, NY, and introduced us to surfing when I was 13. My parents nurtured that interest by buying my sister and I a used 9’0’ Velzy popout to share when I was 14. By age 15 I saved all my babysitting money to buy my own custom Dewey Weber (for $129!!) I was hooked.
I went to college, married and had two sons and we lived in PA for 20+ years with no ocean access, only beach vacations. When our sons took to surfing we moved to North Carolina, Justin was going into 9th grade and Erik, 6th. This was the point where our love for surfing took off as a family. We lived a few blocks from the beach and we used any free time to spend it there.
We joined the Eastern Surfing Association, Central North Carolina District and met so many wonderful people that loved surfing as much as we did.
When our local District Director retired, I stepped into the role of director and stayed in that position for 20 years.
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There are so many things I loved about those years but the people I met through ESA were the reason I stayed on so long.
I also competed all those years and that is probably what kept me in shape to surf into my 70’s.
When I retired from directing the district, and my children were now young men, my husband and I did a lot more traveling to foreign surf destinations. That led us the Puerto Rico where we built a home and began spending our fall and winter months in the tropical waters of NW PR. The surf in PR is SO much more consistent than Emerald Isle, NC and because of that my surfing actually improved with age!
It’s where I became more comfortable surfing on larger waves. Now I’m in a personal challenge to see how long I can keep this passion going.
I did have a set-back last winter when I tore my rotator cuff and was out of the water for 9 months following surgery and recovery. It took me several months to get back into enough surfing shape to feel comfortable again.
Am I slowing down? Yes, but my love of surfing has not changed. I just try to adapt to what I’m capable of and take it from there.
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