Blind Australian enjoys surfing the waves

STANWELL PARK, Australia -- Nathan Johnston says he surfs just for fun. Friends and family see it as an act of extraordinary courage and perseverance over adversity.

Shrugging off the fact that he is blind, the 18-year-old dismisses the idea he's showing any special courage in learning to ride the waves at Stanwell Park, a picturesque town 12 miles south of Sydney.

"It's just something I've wanted to do for a while," he says while basking in the morning sun sitting on a bench. "Just going down a wave and across a wave, it's something I love. It's just the enjoyment of it."

Nathan's sight began slipping away at age 11 due to a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa. He now has less than 5 percent frontal vision and zero peripheral vision.

On a bright sunny day, there is enough light for him to sense a wall of water as a dark shadow just before it crashes over him. But that's long after his acute hearing warns him what is coming, he says.

Nathan decided he wanted to surf two years ago.

"Once he gets an idea in his head, you can't stop him," says his mother, Sandra. "Nath does whatever he wants, anyway."

Learning to trust

Peter and Fiona Hunt, who run Stanwell Park's Bliss Surf School, were worried, too, about taking a blind person into the pounding ocean waves.

"We've learned all these little tricks as we went along. Wind is important, that's the first thing we discovered. He uses the wind to get his bearings," Peter says.

Most Saturday mornings Nathan hits the beach with Peter. They wax their boards and do warmup exercises, then Peter takes Nathan's hand and they walk to the water's edge.

"OK, Nathan, the wind's coming from the northwest. You're facing the water. Your back's to the sand," says Peter.

Nathan shifts his head slightly left, right, senses the breeze, listens to the smacking of water on water and the churn of whitewash. He nods, and the two plunge into the surf.

"It's about hearing -- it's most about hearing -- but feeling as well," says Nathan.

It's also about trust.

Nathan puts his life into the hands of Peter and Fiona, who talk him into each wave: when to paddle, where to paddle, how steep the drop down the wave face will be, how fast the wave lips are peeling, which way to turn.

But when the raw ocean energy shoots board and surfer on an exhilarating charge down a wall of moving water, Nathan is on his own.

"You've just got to trust them. It's worked really well. I reckon they could help anyone with a disability," Nathan says.

Determination and passion

Nathan is now surfing waves up to 5 feet high. After wiping out, he splutters to the surface, usually laughing, climbs on his board, pauses to sense the wind, listens for oncoming waves, then paddles out for the next set.

"This guy now is a surfer -- he's not a blind surfer. He's a surfer, and he loves to go surfing," Peter says. "Sometimes now people don't even realize he can't see. He's just a guy learning to surf."

Fiona says Nathan's progress has been much the same as a person who can see because he has grown up near the beach, is comfortable with the ocean and is a strong swimmer.

Most of all, he has passion.

"We might have taught him to surf, but he's taught me a lot," she says. "He's made me realize that no matter what happens to you, if you have the right spirit, if you're determined and passionate, you can still get the most out of life."