Surf Camp Team

Mark McCann
Camp Director/ Certified Surf Instructor

Mark is a third grade teacher in New Hanover County, in seaside Wilmington, NC. Growing up on Long Island, his mother brought him to the beach daily. When his lips were purple he was forced to wait patiently in the sand for his body temperature to return to normal before he could get back in the water to continue body-surfing. He has always felt at home in the water.

His love for skateboarding began after seeing Michael J. Fox grab on to the back of a car in the movie Back to the Future, and he has been skating ever since. Within the skateboarding community he learned a lot about perseverance and friendship. Snowboarding soon followed as a cold weather alternative to skateboarding. While living in Durango, CO, he got his first taste of formal teaching. A friend asked him to fill in for an instructor with a group of children ages five to eight. This favor changed the focus of his life to teaching.

Returning to the east coast, Mark enrolled in college to become a teacher. He traded the cold mountains of Colorado for the warm North Carolina coast and swapped snowboarding for surfing. On a flat summer day a little boy looking at him with wide eyes as he surfed by caused him to ask “why not?” By the end of the summer Mark had informally instructed ten wide-eyed kids to ride a surfboard. Today, he is one of two directors for Teen Overnight camp and our Day Surf Camps.

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