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CNN Live Sunday

Troubled Teens Ride Waves Under Pastor's Guidance

Aired September 01, 2002 - 18:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The image of surfing portrayed in movies like the current release "Blue Crush" include sun, fun and the California Coast. But there are other places where young people surf, and as CNN's Bill Delaney found out, they're riding the waves to help save soles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Maine, unless there's a hurricane blowing, when surf's up, any self-respecting West Coast surfer would probably get a bit down. Even the state's small waves, though, youth pastor Mark Wheeler believes, can cause tidal shifts in a young person's, well, self-respect.

(on camera): What happens to a kid when he starts to surf?

MARK WHEELER, SURF PASTOR, GRACE BIBLE CHURCH: Well, they begin to see and feel that they can accomplish something. If you can get them to accomplish something, then they get to see that they're worth something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Mark, are there any waves?

WHEELER: Yeah, there are, there are some wicked waves.

DELANEY (voice-over): For four years, thousands of often troubled teenagers from all over the country, some thrown out of their homes, some struggling with drugs or alcohol, have learned to surf at Wheeler's House of David Surf Riders in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

WHEELER: You should have seen them this morning. Two to five feet, just like this. It was like being mini-Hawaii.

DELANEY: 16-year-old Angela Nason found a way out of the miseries of teenage peer pressure, the loneliness of being a bit different. And...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father, we thank you for this opportunity. Amen.

DELANEY: She found herself open to what Wheeler sees as the spiritual side of surfing.

ANGELA NASON, SURFER: Even if you're just paddling around the water, if feels good, and you're in the ocean enjoying creation. How can you not believe that God isn't real? DELANEY: Not that it's always a day at the beach.

RUTHIE O'BRIEN, SURFER: I'm very tired. I got hit twice with the board, but I kept going. It's a lot of work.

DELANEY: Wheeler, himself once a teenager with serious drug and alcohol problems, says learning to get bashed around and then however wobbly, getting back up again, is what it's all about.

As for Maine's surf, well, he's got that covered.

WHEELER: Hey, you know, we know the guy that runs the wave machine, and he knows we need to do this, so it's really kind of cool.

DELANEY: And the really kind of cold ocean of Maine's not exactly endless summer, a simple sermon then in the surf: When you're young, you're bound to wipe out; just try to ride the next wave.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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