Vince Ray shared the surfing stoke with over 12,000 kids as coach, and even more as Surfing Santa
by Kevin Cody Vince Ray brought the joy of surfing to over 12,000 kids, as director of the Chevron Hermosa Surf Camp, and holiday joy to even more kids as Easy Reader’s Surfing Santa. Ray passed away Wednesday morning, January 3, at age 66, after a year-long fight with pancreatic cancer. Ray was a special education teacher for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. But it was his surf camps, held when school is out and kids need something to do, for which he will be best remembered. Vince Ray, stoking the stoke. Easy Reader file photo Surfing is a difficult sport to learn, and even more difficult to teach. Ray met these two challenges by insisting his instructors, all school teachers or former beach lifeguards, make his surf camps safe and fun. The promise to his kids, which he never failed to keep, was they would stand up on a surfboard on their first day of camp. Surfing Santa demonstrating the “Model Pose,” and teaching it to his campers. Easy Reader file photos Hermosa waves in the summer are often difficult to ride standing up. So he taught his kids they could still have fun riding prone in what he called the coffin, cockroach and model positions. And more importantly…
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