LI Teacher Looks To Expand Kids' Access To Outdoor Beach Activities

SHIRLEY, NY — Shawn Dillon is a physical education teacher in the Longwood School District who has been running an outdoor education club and an elective outdoor sports education class for 15 years. His clubs help expand access to saltwater and outdoor sports on Long Island in a diverse district where the school outings are sometimes the first experience the students have on a kayak, paddle board or mountain bike.

This summer Dillon is expanding his efforts with a new nonprofit located on the bay side in Smith Point County Park in Shirley called Experience Saltwater. He wants the new location to bring saltwater activities like kayaking and paddle boarding, and maybe eventually surfcasting, surfing and fat tire beach mountain biking, to even more children on Long Island, he told Patch.

The nonprofit is all volunteer-ran, staffed with many of Dillon's current and former Longwood students. There are kayak and paddle board rentals available to the public, at a range of experience and difficulty levels. A portion of the rentals then go to sponsoring no-cost youth group outings, allowing more Long Island kids to enjoy the saltwater all around them, Dillon said.

This week the group will take out their first group of kids, from a nearby church group. Dillon hopes the word continues to spread about his mission. Groups of kids from anywhere on Long Island are welcome to get into contact with him to set up a day on the water, he said.

In his programs at Longwood, Dillon has seen the impact just giving kids' access to opportunities to try new activities has had.

"I've taken students in eleventh and twelfth grades to Smith Point beach who had never been to the ocean before. I've had kids who had never learned to ride a bike tell me years later" the impact the programs had on their life, he explained.

"We want to give the kids the chance to experience the saltwater that's all around them here on Long Island. We want to get kids on the water."

Dillon wants his model to eliminate the barriers to entry for some in the community to try the sports, whether it's a $30 cost to rent a kayak or even just the lack of knowledge of what's possible to do on the water on Long Island.

"Some of the kids didn't know you could camp at Smith Point, or that you can four-wheel on the beach, so the first step is just bringing awareness."

At Experience Saltwater, kids as young as seven years old can get onto a paddle board or into a kayak, Dillon explained, and when adults or kids pay for a rental there they can "try out all the toys" and experiment with different equipment.

"I have 650 kids in my Longwood programs, and it sounds like a lot, but it's really not...there are so many more kids we can reach."