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WBM june 2011
“I feel like he drives me a little bit,”
Erik says. “I get to show off for him
and it gives him something to look up
to, too. I like that I get to teach him.”
Despite so many boys being around
the same age, the Paulson family
emphasizes that there is no competition,
just that they enjoy cheering each
other on.
“We’ve all had some remarkable
experiences in terms of watching each
other take a good wave,” Tom says.
“You get that close-knit feeling with
your kids when they catch a wave and
you hold up 10 fingers in excitement,”
Lon laughs. “Even if it was only a
seven.”
Meet the Mitchells
Some kids begin playing sports
at a young age. Dads
throw baseballs to sons as
they try to teach them the
fundamentals of a swing.
But for Brandon Mitchell, his hobby
started in the ocean as his father, Mark
Mitchell nudged him toward surfing
from the age of four.
Mark says he began by setting his
son on a small board at the water’s
edge. As the current passed, Brandon
thought he was surfing, just like dad.
From that age on, the Mitchells
have used surfing as a way to stay close
to each other and explore the waters
as close as Wrightsville Beach and the
Caribbean, and as far away as Fiji.
Since Mark’s early days of surfing
in the 1960s, the sport has evolved
into more of a family sport than it was
when he started.
“The interesting thing is back in
the ’60s and ’70s, no one’s mother
or father surfed,” Mark says. “It was
basically a bunch of your 10- to 14-
year-old buddies who talked their
parents into buying them boards, then
paddled out and didn’t have a clue
what to do.”
But Mark wanted to introduce the
entire family to the sport. He has since
lured his daughters Erica and Sophia
onto boards and into the waves. But