The Brief

Two years ago, 11-year-old Soma joined a long legacy of Venice Beach surfers.

He’s progressed from riding on his stomach to standing upright and has set his sights on a bigger goal— getting barreled.

“If it comes — a giant wave — I wanna surf not on top, but… in the wave,” Soma said.

On a recent Saturday, Soma, who has autism, was one of 20 kids in the lineup as part of the PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic.

The program is part of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks’ effort to expand opportunities for youths with disabilities.

“We've seen the benefits of kids who've been told, ‘You can't do this,'” said Kelly Caldwell,  principal recreation supervisor for the Play LA program. “Giving them a place to play, it just, it changes their world.”

Soma’s mom Fumi Suzuki signed him up, in part because her husband read that children with autism are at higher risk of drowning than their peers. Suzuki said she’s seen her son become more confident and she’s bonded with the other parents standing on the shore.

“I [feel] really grateful for this community,” Fumi Suzuki said. “It's like a family.”

How adaptive surf came to LA

After Los Angeles agreed nearly a decade ago to host the 2028 Olympics, organizers committed $160 million to local youth sports. LA28 has contributed $60 million to PlayLA since 2018. The International Olympic Committee also chipped in, according to Recreation and Parks.

Los Angeles Recreation and Parks staff use a beach wheelchair to help Penny Pedersen move from the beach to her surfboard.

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Greta Pederson, left, and sister Penny Pedersen, right, catch a wave at Venice Beach.

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The money helps subsidize programs for low-income families, and pays for staffing and equipment for new sports, including table tennis, fencing and archery.

The funding has also helped expand the city’s programs for youths with disabilities. Adaptive youth sports include swimming, volleyball, skateboarding, blind soccer and track and field.

Three years ago, the city partnered with the Challenged Athletes Foundation to host the first surf clinics for youths with disabilities.

“The goal of this program is to make sure that everyone has access,” said Adaptive Sports Facility Director Erika Luna Diaz. “We want to make sure that there [are] no limitations.”

Each participant in the PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic is paired with at least one instructor. The kids rotate in and out of the surf over the four-hour duration of each session.

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Native Hawaiians brought surfing to California in the late 19th century, but the sport has not always been accessible to all.

Segregation limited access to beaches and pools for communities of color. Early surfing competitions marginalized women and territorial locals harassed and intimidated newcomers.

While the sport has become more inclusive, there are still challenges, including polluted beaches and a lack of accessible beach parking.

Bringing stoke and safety to all

The first goal, explained instructor Evan MacCarthy, is that the surfers are safe. Participants learn to never turn their back on the ocean and protect their head in the surf.

“A very close second goal is stoke,” MacCarthy said.

Surf instructor Alexander Lewin lets go of the board as Henry Pedersen catches a wave.

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The city pays for all the required equipment, including surfboards, wetsuits to insulate participants against the cold and brightly colored rashguards that help identify the kids in the water. Families are not required to disclose their child’s disability, but if they choose to do so, it can help the program plan for their individual needs. For example, there’s a wheelchair with puffy inflated tires to move kids with limited mobility from their personal chair to their boards.

While the program is free to families, between staff and equipment, it costs the city about $291 for each child to participate.

The ratio of instructors to students in the city’s surf program for youths without disabilities is 1 to 5, but in the para surf clinic, there’s at least one instructor assigned to every participant. Additional staff, called “water watchers,” help monitor the kids in the surf.

“Everybody has their own specific needs and wants,” said instructor Alexander Lewin. “I think here it's our job to kind of match up that need and want with an instructor who can fulfill that.”

“I love bringing stoke to the place, so that's my job here,” Lewin added.

A day at the beach 

The PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic sets up at the end of Venice Beach's access mat, a mesh net that provides a firmer surface for wheelchairs and other mobility aids.

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The Rec and Parks crew arrives at 6:30 a.m. to set up tents, breakfast and lay down plastic track to help wheelchair users reach the shore.

The approximately 25 members include surf instructors and a dedicated lifeguard.

Families arrive a couple hours later. After the youths sign in, they wriggle into wetsuits with the help of a staff member.

Alex, 10, doesn’t like the feel of the neoprene against his skin, so instead he wears the rashguard over his swimtrunks.

Alex, like others with autism, can become overwhelmed with certain sensations, sounds and visuals. For example, the whistling and yelling common in other youth sports programs.

“It's like an alarm that goes off in his head and he can't think logically and he's looking at you, but he can't hear and process the instructions,” said his mom, Artemis D. LAist agreed not the publish the family's last name to protect their privacy.

Here she doesn’t have to explain why her son needs an alternative — it’s freely offered.

“That's the kind of thing that I'm so thankful for,” she said.

A PlayLA staff member fits Anna with a wetsuit for the first time.

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Next, the kids pair off with a surf instructor and at least one other person who keeps an eye on the participants in the water.

For first-timers, like 9-year-old Anna, the lessons start on the sand.

Instructor Sophie Holdorff shows her how to lay on the board on her belly, and windmill her arms with cupped hands to paddle through the water.

Surf instructor Sophie Holdorff teaches Anna the basics of riding a surf board. "I do this work to make sure that people know how to be safe and comfortable and confident in the ocean," Holdorff said. "All of that builds stoke and empowerment and courage."

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Her mom, Kristine, saw the clinic posted online several months ago.

“ I couldn't believe my eyes,” Kristine said. “I always thought surfing is for, you know, special people, athletes.”

LAist agreed not to use Kristine and Anna’s last time to protect their privacy. Kristine said her daughter struggles with developmental challenges and post traumatic stress disorder.

“Things like [surfing] are gonna bring her joy,” Kristine said. “Maybe bring her back to normalcy and hopefully help her feel better and catch up with her peers emotionally and physically.”

Anna catches her first wave within half an hour of arriving at the beach.

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Less than 10 minutes later, Anna walks into the water holding Sophie’s hand.

“It's nerve wracking for me, but I'm getting used to it,” Kristine said.

Kristine watched as the instructors encouraged Anna to widen her stance on the board.

“Anna is actually following directions, which is something that she normally has a problem with,” Kristine said. “I see that sometimes she is getting sidetracked, but they bring her back to where she needs to be.”

Anna stands up for the first time. Holdorff, left, later helps her widen her stance and open up her hips to better balance on the board.

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When Anna returns to the shore, her instructor Holdorff shows her how to dig for sandcrabs as the water recedes from the sand.

Anna’s eyes scan the ground for the v-shaped indents in the sand.

“I love them,” Anna gasped as she holds up the squirming, gray crustacean. “Can I take them home?”

Anna’s preoccupation with the surf and the sandcrabs also gave Kristine, and her mother, a rare moment of calm.

“For her to do one thing for such a long period of time without getting distracted and running — it's running away mostly — it's awesome,” Kristine said.

Anna, right, also learns how to find sand crabs (Emerita Analoga) beneath v-shaped marks in the sand. Her first reaction? "So cute."

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Physical and social benefits of ‘surf therapy’

Research shows that youths with disabilities who participate in surf programs can improve their balance, coordination, strength and endurance.

But there are also social benefits, said University of Rhode Island education professor Emily Clapham. She’s studied the outcomes of youths with disabilities who participate in surf programs for the last 16 years.

Surfing as a group creates the camaraderie of team sports without the competition.

“There's no winner, there's no loser,” Clapham said. ”Everybody's participating and trying the best they can. Everybody has a different goal in mind and surfing really enables that to happen.”

Penny, left in the red wetsuit, Greta, and Henry Pedersen, right, catch a wave together. Los Angeles Recreation and Parks hosted eight para surf clinics between June and September 2025.

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For example, at Venice Beach, one child works on overcoming his fear of the water while another gets tips on their stance.

“You really want the child or individual to be able to do as much as they can independently,” Clapham said. “Because that's really where that empowerment comes from.”

Clapham said there’s a child in her program who enjoys sitting on the board backwards to watch the wave break behind him.

“Who are we to say that's not the correct way to surf?” Clapham said. ”It's really a beautiful thing to see all the different variations.”

Clapham has noticed the rhythmic motion of the waves and white noise of the waves soothes children with autism who can get overwhelmed by sensations, sounds and sights.

“It really helps them to calm down and to be able to bring your body down to a relaxed state,” Clapham said. “Now your brain is open, you can learn because you're not in a state of survival mode.”

Though there’s no count of surfing programs for people with disabilities nationwide, Clapham said she’s seen an increase in recent years and there’s now an international organization dedicated to surf therapy research and professional development.

Austen Ramirez demonstrates another way to ride the waves.

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"These kids are, are so much more, their ability is so much more than, than what I think society assumes," said surf instructor Evan MacCarthy, right.

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Meeting kids where they’re at

The vast majority of the participants smile nonstop while in the water, but there are a few meltdowns throughout the morning.

On his first wave, Alex jumps off his surfboard in shallow water and tweaks his knee.

His mom, Artemis D., the clinic staff and a lifeguard don’t see signs of a more serious injury, but Alex refuses to get back in the water.

The instructors tell Alex he can come back when he’s ready.

“They don't stress him out,” Artemis said. “They don't make him feel more overwhelmed than the world already feels.”

Alex, 10, shows off a sand crab he caught while taking a break from surfing.

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Alex flips over several of the sand crabs to check for the masses of orange eggs that some females carry.

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She said in other recreation programs and at school her son’s behavior can be misunderstood as defiance rather than overwhelm.

“He gets in trouble a lot,” Artemis said. “Sometimes he doesn't even know what he's doing wrong. If someone would take the time to explain, maybe he would learn.”

Students with disabilities are often disciplined for defiant, disruptive or disorderly behavior at higher rates than their peers. An analysis from the Hechinger Report found in California the rate of suspensions for these infractions is twice as high for students with disabilities than those without.

“We finally found an activity he could do and not get kicked out of or yelled at, or feel different,” Artemis said of the surfing program.

“We just want these kids to have the absolute best time of their lives today,” said instructor Alexander Lewin. “It ranges different for each kid. Some kids, it's literally just get in the wave and ride it on your stomach and some of these kids, they are fully into popping up and almost going sideways on a wave. It's just all the levels in between.”

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Alex tells his mom he wants to go home, but is distracted when a French bulldog, his favorite for their squishy faces, walks by and lets him scratch his head.

He hunts for sand crabs, rolls around in the sand and talks to his friend Soma, who attended his birthday the week before. They met through the surf clinic. Another friendly French bulldog walks by.

Artemis said she isn’t worried about judgment from the other families.

“The kids don't stop and stare because it's like, ‘OK, well I know what he's feeling because that happens to me sometimes,’” she said.

Less than an hour before the program ends for the day, Alex gets back in the water to test out a tandem surfboard.

“It was good to see him not give up today,” said his instructor, Patrick Caldwell. “I think that it was a moment of growth for him.”

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Thousands of immigrants who are lawfully in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.

The new restrictions stem from H.R. 1 — also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — which Congress passed last year.

The changes remove eligibility for certain noncitizens, including people with refugee status and victims of trafficking. It also applies to immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan who have special immigrant visas for helping the U.S. government overseas.

 ”These are folks … many of whom have large families that we have a commitment to as a country because we welcomed them and invited them here to find a place of refuge,” said Cambria Tortorelli, president of the International Institute of Los Angeles, a refugee resettlement agency. “They’re authorized to work and they’ve been brought here by the U.S. government.”

The federal spending bill, H.R. 1, made sweeping cuts to social safety net programs, including food assistance and Medicaid. In signing the bill, President Donald Trump said the changes were delivering on his campaign promises of “America first.”

Officials estimate 23,000 people in Los Angeles County will be affected. The state estimates about 72,000 immigrants with lawful presence will be affected across California.

CalFresh is the state’s version of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Undocumented immigrants have not been eligible to receive CalFresh benefits.

State officials say noncitizens who are currently receiving benefits will continue to get them until it’s time to renew their benefits — adding that people might be able to receive benefits again if their legal status changes to lawful permanent residents.

Who the changes apply to:

• Asylees
• Refugees
• Parolees (unless they are Cuban and Haitian entrants)
• Individuals with deportation or removal withheld
• Conditional entrants
• Victims of trafficking
• Battered noncitizens
• Iraqi or Afghan with special immigrant visas (SIV) who are not lawful permanent residents (LPR)
• Certain Afghan Nationals granted parole between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2023
• Certain Ukrainian Nationals granted parole between Feb. 24, 2022, and Sep. 30, 2024

Nearly every student in the California State University system has used artificial intelligence tools, but most don’t trust the results, are worried about how AI will affect their future job security and want more say in systemwide AI policy.

That’s according to results of a 2025 survey of more than 80,000 students enrolled at CSU’s 22 campuses, plus faculty and staff — the largest and most comprehensive study of how higher education students and instructors perceive artificial intelligence.

Nationwide, university faculty struggle to reconcile the learning benefits of AI — hailed as a “transformative tool” for providing tutoring and personalized support to students — and the risks that students will depend on AI agents to do their thinking for them and, very possibly, get the wrong information. Educators want a say in how and which AI tools are used. Students across the CSU system want to be included in those discussions.

Some professors teach students how to use AI and encourage students to use it, while others forbid its use in the classroom, said Katie Karroum, vice president of systemwide affairs for the Cal State Student Association, representing more than 470,000 students.

“Both of these things are allowed to coexist right now without a policy,” she said.

Karroum said that faculty practices are too varied and that what students need are consistent and transparent rules developed in collaboration with students. “There are going to be students who are graduating with AI literacy and some that graduate without AI literacy.”

In February 2025, the CSU system announced an initiative to adopt AI technologies and an agreement with OpenAI to make ChatGPT available throughout the system. The system-wide survey released Wednesday confirms that ChatGPT is the most used AI tool across CSUs. The system will also work with Adobe, Google, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft and NVIDIA.

Campus leaders say the survey and accompanying dashboard provide much needed data on how the system continues to integrate AI into instruction and assessment.

“We need to have data to make data-informed decisions instead of just going by anecdote,” said Elisa Sobo, a professor of anthropology at San Diego State who was involved in interpreting the survey’s findings. “We have data that show high use, but we also have high levels of concern, very valid concern, to help people be responsible when they use it.”

Faculty at San Diego State designed the survey, which received more than 94,000 responses from students, faculty and staff. Among all responding CSU students, 95% reported using an AI tool; 84% said they used ChatGPT and 82% worry that AI will negatively impact their future job security. Others worry that they won’t be competitive if they don’t understand AI well enough.

“Even though I don’t want to use it, I HAVE TO!” wrote a computer science major. “Because if I don’t, then I’ll be left behind, and that is the last thing someone would want in this stupid job market.”

Faculty are divided about the impact of AI on teaching and research. Just over 55% reported a positive benefit, while 52% said AI has had a negative impact so far.

San Diego State conducted its first campuswide survey in 2023 in response to complaints from students about inconsistent rules about AI use in courses, said James Frazee, vice president for information technology at the campus.

“Students are facing this patchwork of expectations even within the same course taught by different instructors,” Frazee said. In one introductory course, the professor might encourage students to use AI, but another professor teaching the same course might forbid it, he said. “It was a hot mess.”

In that 2023 survey, one student made this request: “Please just tell us what to do and be clear about it.”

Following that survey, the San Diego State Academic Senate approved guidelines for the use of generative AI in instruction and assessments. In 2025, the Senate made it mandatory that faculty include language about AI use in course syllabi.

“It doesn’t say what your disposition has to be, whether it’s pro or con,” Frazee said. “It just says you have to be clear about your expectations. Without the 2023 survey data, that never would have happened.”

According to the 2025 systemwide survey, only 68% of teaching faculty include language about AI use in their syllabi.

Sobo and other faculty who helped develop the 2025 survey hope other CSU campuses will find the data helpful in informing policies about AI use. The dashboard allows users to search for specific campus and discipline data and view student responses by demographic group.

The 2025 survey shows that first-generation students are more interested in formal AI training and that Black, Hispanic and Latino students are more interested than white students. At San Diego State, students are required to earn a micro-credential in AI use during their first year — another change that was made after the 2023 survey.

Students in this year’s survey said they want training that will be relevant to their careers. “I want to learn AI tools that are actually used in my industry, not just generic chatbots,” a mechanical engineering student responded. “Show me what engineers are actually doing with AI on the job.”

The California Faculty Association, which represents about 29,000 educators in the CSU system, said in a February statement that faculty should be included in future systemwide decisions about AI, including whether the contract with OpenAI should be renewed in July.

“CFA members continue to advocate for ethical and enforceable safeguards governing the use of artificial intelligence,” the CFA said in the statement, asking for “protections for using or refusing to use the technology, professional development resources to adapt pedagogy to incorporate the technology, and further protections for faculty intellectual property.”