OCPS Budget to Remain Flat

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

Orange County students, teachers and parents can rest assured that the quality education they came to know this past school year will again be provided, even with the large cuts in federal funding for the school system. Orlando-area schools will not see a change in the budget for this year, while neighboring districts will be harboring steep cuts.

The budget remaining flat is thanks to the county voters who approved a millage increase of one-mil to prevent the cuts this past November. Millage is a rate of taxation expressed in mills – short for millions – per dollar.

The budget remaining flat is thanks to the county voters who approved a millage increase of one-mil to prevent the cuts this past November.

According to Richard Collins, the chief financial officer for Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), this particular millage should generate around $83 million to go toward public education. The revenue will replace the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) state-fiscal-stabilization dollars that the district lost as of June 30, and will also replace the 0.25 critical-needs millage that expired the same day. According to reports by the Orlando Sentinel, “Other major factors in holding the budget in the same spot are $44 million in newly mandated retirement contributions and $37 million that was saved by federal funding of education jobs last year.”

Collins says, “We will continue to provide a high-quality instructional program even with the reduced state funding and increased competition for scarce resources.”

The budget is designed to provide resources for the instruction of students. “The focus is always on our strategic plan, with the vision of being the top producer of successful students in the nation,” says Collins. The General Fund is where OCPS pays for district operations, such as instruction, transportation, school administration and more. Collins says the General Fund budget should be close to $1.5 billion, including all carry-over amounts, and is based on tax revenues of just more than $1.2 billion.

According to the school funding advocacy website, http://www.FundEducationNow.org, the Orange County budget remaining the same is much-needed for the state of Florida due to Florida’s legislature cutting the K -12 education budget by more than $1.3 billion since 2007, with Orange County losing $105.4 million of that amount. Fund Education Now is a grassroots, non-partisan group created by three Orange County Public School mothers who hope to empower residents to vote on behalf of Florida’s children and their education both now and in the future. Interestingly, the site also states that 10 years ago the state of Florida funded 61 percent of education costs but now only funds 51 percent.

Last year the budget broke down as follows: 75 percent of the Orange County education budget went toward Instruction and Instructional Support, 10 percent to Plant Operation and Maintenance, 7 percent to School Administration, 4 percent to Transportation, 3 percent to General Support and 1 percent to General Administration and School Board. Collins says this year’s distribution of funds will be comparable to last year’s with only minor adjustments as new ways to improve the system and spending are developed. “But there won’t be any significant redistribution,” he says.

Changes that Orange County schools will see include some restructuring of jobs approved by the superintendent and an increase in the number of teachers district-wide due to increased enrollment.

While the rest of the state worries about the money their schools deserve, Orange County can sleep easy, though, knowing its students’ educations won’t waver due to reduced funding for at least another year.

Collins says, “The exact total budget numbers will change between now and the time of the public hearing as we continue to close out our fiscal year that ended June 30.” Budget hearings are scheduled for August 2 and September 13. To learn more, visit www.OCPS.net.

Sunrise Elementary Changing the World

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

The title of “superhero” isn’t limited to comic book characters anymore. One fifth grade class at Sunrise Elementary School redefines the meaning by helping to save the world through recycling.

Tricia LaChance’s fifth grade class was a national finalist in this year’s Siemens “We can Change the World” Elementary School Challenge in the grades three to five category. Her students researched what type of trash was thrown away at their school and which of those types could be recycled. They educated parents, students and teachers on the issue through posters, videos, PowerPoint presentations and even helped answer any questions people had on the topic. Through their research they found their school threw away more Styrofoam lunchroom trays than any other type of trash. Students then found a way to recycle 44,820 trays from their school alone in a single year.

LaChance, who has been teaching for 14 years, 11 of which at Sunrise Elementary, says her students got involved with the project during a class discussion on environmental issues. “They discovered that even at the young age of 10 and 11 they can make a difference,” she says. “They felt empowered that they had made a difference in their world.”

The trays are taken to Blue Earth Solutions, a company that is involved in developing and implementing ways of recycling polystyrene foam and expanded polystyrene, where they are turned into pellets. The pellets are then sold and made into many different products. Some of the items manufactured from recycled Styrofoam include rulers, video cassette shells, toys, sun visors, building insulation, flower pots, egg cartons, push pins, landscape supplies and desktop accessories. Sarah Sosa is a student in LaChance’s class who was involved in the challenge. She says, “Now I look at things like Styrofoam and know it can be recycled. I never knew. I’m recycling more and being less careless.”

The students began contacting and giving presentations to other schools in the surrounding area to join the recycling project. In fact, they were able to get two full truckloads of trays to Blue Earth Solutions when East Lake Elementary, Castle Creek Elementary and Camelot joined in the recycling.

An estimated 100,000 trays were kept out of the landfill thanks to the research and hard work of LaChance’s class, the self-proclaimed Earth Defenders.

Because of the impact of their environmental project, the students won a free trip to SeaWorld sponsored by Keep Orlando Beautiful and SeaWorld. In addition to being a national finalist in the Siemens Change the World Challenge, the class also received an Honorable Mention Green in Action award from Green Education Foundation.

LaChance says it is important for children in this generation to learn the importance of recycling because it saves money, reduces air and water pollution, helps preserve wildlife, protects non-renewable resources and reduces the amount of trash in landfill sites. Lauren Stecker, another fifth-grade student in LaChance’s class, says, “This project has changed my point of view [on recycling] because before I didn’t know that landfills were such a big issue. Now I know that Styrofoam can be recycled and used for bigger and better things.”

Sunrise Elementary is involved in many other environmentally conscious activities as well. Every year the fifth-grade classes sponsor an Earth Day event to teach younger students about conservation and environmental issues through games, activities and presentations. Sunrise also helps the planet with two organic vegetable gardens, a Florida Native garden and a butterfly garden. In addition to Styrofoam, the school even recycles ink cartridges, cardboard, paper and many other items and is currently in an effort to go 100 percent paperless to cut back on trash in their students’ homes as well.

What’s your home value?

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

Trying to find the value of your home can leave you asking a lot of questions: Where do I find this information? How is property value determined? How does the value of my home compare to others in my neighborhood? All of these inquires can be answered with the ever-evolving Orange County Property Appraiser’s website, www.OCPAFL.org. The website receives a search every second and was visited by 4 million users last year.

Bill Donegan, Orange County Property Appraiser, says that the Property Map search function is one of the most used and helpful features the site has to offer. “It allows regular folks to search all of Orange County when deciding on the biggest purchase of a person’s life, which is buying a home,” he says.

The feature is built from Google’s search engine so the second you start typing, it is calculating what you want. Donegan says, “You don’t even have to know how to spell the name of the owner or the street, it predicts what you mean.” When a property is searched, users can see aerial photographs, recent sales information, future development, subdivision boundaries, zoning information and even area foreclosures. The users also have the option to see all of this information on the same map or to choose which information is illustrated using various filters.

A new feature that will be up and running within the next several weeks improves this already simple search even more. All of the information users want will be presented on one page. “There is a lot of data for both residential and commercial properties,” he says. “Everything will be tighter and only info pertaining to the type of property being searched for will be displayed.” Users won’t be confused with data that has nothing to do with the type of property they are looking up.

A common reason residents use the search feature is to determine the market value of their home. Home value is determining the price that most people would pay for a piece of property in its current condition based on the real estate market at this time. The number is established based on the price that other homes in the neighborhood sell for and the number of foreclosures in that area. “Neighborhoods that have high foreclosures actually negatively manipulate the value of surrounding homes,” Donegan says.

Due to the high number of foreclosures in Orlando, local home values are down 3.7 percent from last year and Avalon Park specifically has taken one of the hardest hits. “The Federal government decided that everyone should live in a house but didn’t take whether they could afford one into consideration,” he says.

In the past, selling foreclosed property took a long time because there was no way of knowing who owned the property or how to get in touch with them. But that’s not the case anymore as http://www.ocpafl.org has a foreclosure feature that provides users with owner information and the market value of the home. “This feature helped sell 7,600 of the 11,000 foreclosed homes in Orange County in an extremely short period of time,” Donegan says.

The website now allows users to file their tangible personal property tax return or their homestead exemption online, to see recent sales analysis reports, to view the information in 59 different languages and to fix and update their property cards without having to call in. Soon, users will even be able to update and upload new photographs of their property and get driving directions without having to leave the site.

The goal of every upgrade is to provide users with the most relevant and useful information, making it one of the most innovative sites of its kind across the country. It’s well on its way.

Park Pals

Park Pals

Central Florida Lifestyle Magazine – Central July 2011

By Nikki Stephens

More than 70 Winter Park High School (WPHS) students go out of their way to give 32 special-needs students at their school a genuine teenage experience by playing sports and having lunch with them and by simply accepting them and their disabilities.

Park Pals is a student club that began three years ago, thanks to exceptional student education (ESE) teacher, Debbie Hammonds. Originally the school was a member of Best Buddies, which is an international nonprofit organization that create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Hammonds says the club had to pay a membership fee each year and give a certain percentage of their fundraising money to the organization. She didn’t feel it was benefitting her students as much as it could have, so she start PArk Pals with the approval and help of the school’s principal.

Hammonds says these students are in rooms with other ESE students all day long with very little interaction with the general population. The club gives special-needs students the chance to make friendships outside of their classrooms and improve their social skills. “They are the forgotten ones,” Hammonds says. “They really enjoy the attention the get now. It makes them feel like part of the school.”

Ellen Christner is a sophomore at WPHS and this is her first year as a member of Park Pals. She says when she was younger she was really close friends with a girl who had Down’s Syndrome, which is associated with some impairment of cognitive abilities and physical growth. “I never even realized she was special needs because she was my friend,” Christner says. “That’s what this club does too.”

She says she tries to meet with the ESE students every morning and goes to the room where they have lunch. She is most impacted, though, by the way other students have grown to accept and embrace these differences. “Seeing the entire school actually get involved; not being afraid and just accepting them is what I love,” she says. “The Special Olympics gets the loudest applause out of all the sports at pep rallies.”

Hammonds’s daughter, Shayne is a sophomore at WPHS. She admits that when she would see a student with disabilities in the past, she wouldn’t think of being his or her friend. “Getting to know ESE students has shown me how to get to know people who are different than me and make friends,” Shayne says. Christner adds, “You always know you can come in here and have a friend.”

Keefer Rennebu is a senior in the ESE program. He says he loves having parties, hanging out, socializing and dancing with his Park Pals. But this club isn’t just a club for students with special needs; it is also a club that teaches acceptance and friendship to an entire school.

For more information on Park Pals, visit our website at CentralFloridaLifestyle.com.

Special Needs Stylist

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

Haircuts can be frightening for a child with special needs such as Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, resulting in a traumatic experience for both children and their parents. That’s why Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids, located at 3520 Avalon Park East Blvd. in Orlando, is in the process of training all of its stylists to cut hair for children with various needs.

According to www.AutismSpeaks.org, the challenges of haircuts for children with Autism can range from sensory issues as the hair touches their face to severe anxiety attacks about what will happen during the haircutting process.

The owner of Sharkey’s, Lee Lively-Garcia, says there are a lot of different techniques that stylists can use to help the child through a haircut. “It can be as simple as holding a towel over their face while they’re getting the haircuts, so it doesn’t actually touch their face as its coming down,” she says. “It can also be sitting there and distracting them while the stylist does their job.”

Although the staff has not been trained yet, all employees have read a hard-copy instruction booklet from the Autism Society that is used strictly for stylists on handling special needs cases. Lively-Garcia’s husband and co-owner of Sharkey’s, Mark Garcia, says they have also been fortunate to have several parents of autistic children bring their instructors with them to help the salon through the process.

Garcia and Lively-Garcia decided to have their staff trained in this area because of their personal relationship to those dealing with special needs; it was not a requirement by the Sharkey’s franchise. Lively-Garcia says they have many friends with autistic children and they have seen the horrors first-hand that those families have gone through at other haircutting businesses. “We’ve had parents who have been thrown out of salons before and it’s just not right,” she says.

She advises parents to seek out salons with a lot of patience. She says, “You can’t go somewhere that is going to say you have a half-hour appointment and that’s it.” She says Sharkey’s doesn’t quit cutting, no matter how restless the child, unless the parent doesn’t want to continue with the appointment any longer.

“We will cater to the parent if they are unsure or if it is their first time,” says Garcia. “We will open early, let the child become comfortable with the surroundings and then cut his or her hair before we even open.”

Sharkey’s is also unique by being one of the only salons in a 50-mile radius that specializes in just children’s services. With brightly colored walls, a glamour station, XBOX and Nintendo games galore, energetic music and car-shaped chairs, children of all ages will think of a trip to the salon as a fun and exciting party. “We have the glamour area to make girls feel like a star and TVs and DVDs to keep the kids entertained and distracted while they’re getting their haircuts,” says Lively-Garcia.

This salon also knows the importance of a child’s first haircut. The stylists take a photograph and fill out a certificate for this special occasion and will even email the photo to a relative. Sharkey’s also hosts hour-and-a-half long Glamour Girl parties where girls can get their hair and nails done, play dress up and have a fashion show for their parents. Lively-Garcia says the salon is like the Disney of haircut places and asking the kids to come back will never be a problem. “If they’ve ever had struggles with a haircut before, they won’t after they’ve been here,” she says.

Whether it is commemorating a first-time cut, celebrating a birthday or caring for a child with special needs, Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids makes the experience pleasant for parents and fun for children.

Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids

Video interview with Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids Owners for Insight Magazine.

Disney “I Do”

Central Florida Lifestyle Publications

Two Disney actors of Dr. Phillips are beginning a new chapter in their happily-ever-after story.

By Nikki Stephens

David Kelley and Krista Dimogluo’s real-life romance is something out of a storybook, even if they don’t play lovers in Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Lodge.

The two met in 2008 when she moved to Orlando from Hawaii to pursue her acting career. She says Kelley picked her up on his motorcycle for their first date: a coffee and movie at the Enzian Theater. “I knew I was in love from the moment he kissed me,” Dimogluo says. Kelley moved in with her and her daughter Angeline a week later and the three have been inseparable ever since. Dimogluo says the way Kelley takes care of the __-year-old plays a big role in their overall connection. “That’s her daddy,” she says. “The way he takes care of her is so special.” Kelley says his relationship with Krista wouldn’t feel right if Angeline hadn’t taken him in as her dad.

Dimogluo credits their love for each other to the advice of an audience member at Hoop Dee Doo. Cast members walk around the dining area and interact with the crowd as part of the show. Dimogluo says she asked an old man how long he had been married to his wife and he said 70 years. She had to know his secret. “This adorable old man told me the secret to his 70-year marriage is keeping it sexy,” she says. “So that’s what we’re going to do; keep it sexy and have fun.” She says she has never had someone be so purely in love with her like Kelley is and she really does feel like a princess. Kelley says every element seems to be in place, nothing is missing and they trust one another completely.

It also doesn’t hurt that they get to perform in the same Disney show, he says. “There are hundreds of Disney performances and the fact that we get to work in the same one is amazing for us as a couple.” Hoop Dee Doo Revue is not the first performance they have worked together on either. They were in a Carnival Cruise commercial as husband and wife and they played lovers, Lendall and Gayle, in Almost Maine.

Kelley proposed to Dimogluo on Jan. 23 at a surprise party he threw for her. He made her believe they were going to a casting call for Disney’s Tower of Terror. They dressed in 1940’s glamour and arrived at a house, where she thought she was going to be auditioning. As they sat in the waiting area, 30 of their closest friends and family filled the room. “I knew as soon as I saw my daughter that this wasn’t an audition,” Dimogluo says. “I instantly burst into tears.” Angeline says she was so excited that he finally asked her mom to marry him.

Camp Confidential

Camp Confidential

Central Florida Lifestyle Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

Ask yourself a few questions before deciding which summer program or camp is right for you and your child.

Sending your children off to summer camp can be either exciting or intimidating for all family members. We’re going to help make the experience a positive one by answering all of your questions.

Sleep-away camp or day camp, which is right for my family?
First, you need to assess your children’s levels of independence. If they have spent many successful nights and weekends away from home at either a friend or relative’s house, the may be ready to tackler a longer trip. If you get a phone call from child in tears only an hour after you have dropped her off, she will most likely be too homesick to enjoy a sleep-away camp.

You’ve determined your children are more than capable and independent to leave home for extended periods, now are you ready to let them go? There is no need to be at a never-ending level of anxiety. Day camps provide very similar activities to sleep-away camps and still allow your child to make close friendships – and you won’t miss any time with them, either.

Even if both you and your children are ready for a summer apart, keep these other factors in mind: money, family events and illnesses/allergies. Sleep-away camps can be costyle, so don’t even bring the idea to your child if you haven’t done your research first. Another reason day camp might be a better choice for your family is if you have a family vacation, wedding or reunion while your child would be gone. Leaving home is difficult enough, so you don’t want to rub family togetherness and fun in your child’s face too. The last and very important factor to think about is your child’s health. If you son gets sick very easily or has severe allergies to peanut, she fish or insects, sleep-away camp could turn a dream summer into a nightmare without Mom and Dad.

What do I need to pack for my child?
Most camps will provide a list of necessary items, especially sleep away camps. Use the checklist the provide and keep it handy. Both sleep-away and day camps will also give you a schedule of trips and events. A trip to a theme park will require money and not much else, while a day at the pool will mean you need to pack your child a lunch, a change of clothes, towel and even small bottles of shampoo. Some items to always pack – no matter what the activity – include sunscreen, a bottle of water and a little money. Keep your best judgment in mind and packing will become second nature.

What should I expect from my child’s summer camp experience?
Every camper will walk away with a different opinion, but being prepared for the summer will ensure an optimistic outlook. Be ready to hear all of the ways your children have grown up and the friendships they have made. Ask them what they learned and share in their excitement. Offer to help them make a scrapbook with pictures and reminders of their trip, such as ticket stubs and itineraries. As you add items to the scrapbook, have your child tell you about the people in the pictures and what they did on certain days. This will make your summer-camp experience just as exhilarating as theirs.

For a list of local summer camps, visit CentralFloridaLifestyle.com

A Father’s Love

Central Florida Lifestyle Publications

One Seminole County father shows it doesn’t take two parents to raise a family, just a lot of love.

By Nikki Stephens

Being a single father of two growing girls may seem like a difficult task to some, but John Forester of Seminole County thinks of it as a dream job. “I get more hugs and kisses than you can imagine,” he says. “Having two daughters is amazing.”

Forester married and moved in with a woman who had a 5-year-old daughter in 2001. After a couple of years of marriage, the couple had a daughter together. Eventually the two divorced. This separation left Forester with custody of both daughters: Ashley, who is now 8 years old and Amanda, who is 15. “Amanda is not biologically mine, but I am her dad. I’ve never not been her dad,” he says. When he received custody of the girls roughly three years ago, he says his entire life changed for the better. Forester has the girls Monday through Friday and his ex-wife has them on weekends.

Being There

Forester is raising both girls to the best of his abilities but says he has absolutely no idea what he is doing in regards to parenting. He must be doing something right, though, because he has two beautiful girls who get good grades in school, are involved with their community and are respectful. “I do the exact same thing as every other parent,” Forester says. “I’m not special; I just do it by myself.” Forester clearly defines the line between friendship and parenting when it comes to his children, which is why he says they are so close. Ashley says, “If I didn’t have my family, I’d be alone. Friends are nice, but there is nothing like family.”

Forester says he also never stops worrying about his girls. He fears his parenting skills aren’t adequate and wonders how his children will turn out. “There comes a point when they decide the person they are going to be, though” he says. “And as a parent, you just hope that you’ve led them down the right path.” Ashley says he is doing a fantastic job. “He is my superhero. I just love him so much,” she says.

When asked to describe a typical day in the Forester household, he chuckles, “No day is typical when you are raising children.” This single-father family has a daily routine that it (tries) to stick to, just like one might imagine. At 7 a.m. Forester wakes the girls up to get them ready for school. He makes them breakfast and then walks them to class. At 3 p.m. when his 8-year-old daughter gets out of school, he meets her and walks her home. Forester lets Amanda walk home with friends. “As a dad of a teen girl, I have to give her that freedom,” he says. With his home only a 10-minute walk from both schools, he trusts her to make the trip quickly and safely.

Family Time

This household’s weekly routine, however, is what sets the Foresters apart from others.

On Monday, Forester, Amanda and Ashley stay up late to watch wrestling together. He said his father used to take him to wrestling matches every Sunday when he was growing up. It was something from his childhood that he wanted to be able to pass down to his kids as well. Even though there aren’t matches for him to take his girls to every week, there is World Wrestling Entertainment on television every Monday until 11 p.m. He says he and Amanda have been watching together every week for six or seven years, while Ashley has only been joining them for the past few years because she was too young before. Forester says, “The girls love John Cena, because they are girls and he is hot I guess.” He doesn’t have a favorite wrestler though, he just watches for the sport of it.

Tuesdays are family ice cream night. After playing with friends in the neighborhood and eating dinner, they all head over to Brusters. They made the trip three Tuesdays in a row when Ashley noticed the trend and decided that Ice Cream Tuesdays would be a new Forester tradition. “We do nothing on Tuesdays, so we might as well have ice cream,” she says.

On Wednesday nights, they spend a quiet evening in the backyard grilling together. “We do a lot as a family,” Forester says. “This is just one more thing that keeps us together.”

Thursdays are Forester’s softball tournaments. He takes his daughters to Barnett Park near the fairgrounds where his team plays every week. The bar he owns, called Cheers, has sponsored the team for 15 years. Forester says his daughters seem to enjoy going to the games the most. Ashley says there are a lot of kids for her to play with and everyone is really nice. Forester says all of the players have beautiful women that come out to watch. He thinks they come just for his daughters though, because he doesn’t see his girls the entire time he’s playing. Ashley says she enjoys watching her dad play softball. “Whenever Dad gets a good hit, I cheer really loud and jump up and down,” she says.

On His Own

Forester gets to spend so much time with his daughters because of the flexibility of his job. Owning a bar allows him to be more available to his daughters in the day time. “I’m about to turn 47, and I don’t want to work until 3 or 4 a.m. every night,” he says. “I like being home with my girls.”

He is not dating anyone at the moment but says he wouldn’t mind if someone came along. He admits that it is difficult to be in a relationship because of his situation. “I can’t really give much attention to a woman and that’s what dating requires,” Forester says. “My girls have all of mine.” With all of this, he says he would not trade his life for anything in the world. “I love what I do. I love my daughters,” he says.

Catchin’ Air

Kiteboarding Magazine

The T.V show you weren’t supposed to enjoy, but do.

By Nikki Stephens

Whether you’ve never kited before or have shredded with the pros, Catchin’ Air is the show to watch. The first major TV series to showcase kiteboarding airs on Discovery HD Theater. It features professional kite instructor Andy Hurdman and amputee Sean Reyngoudt travelling to Alaska, Florida, Oregon, Utah and California. The two tear up some new, never-kited-on locations as well as some of the classics.

Filming on the Oregon Coast, which is infamous for its population of big sharks, proved to be the biggest mental challenge for Reyngoudt. “The thought of dying made me really anxious,” he said. “I’m used to diving with sharks under the water; but to be on top with them below me, I didn’t know what to do.”

The crew all seemed to love kiting in Alaska the most, though. “Putting ourselves in the elements was a challenge but neat,” Reyngoudt said.

Hurdman got a taste of the Alaskan wildlife when  a humpback whale jumped out of the water and landed 15 feet from their boat. “It almost smooshed us,” he said.

The co-producer Ben Sampson, who also films and edits each episode, enjoyed working in the icy state as well. “At Glacier Island, the guys were jumping over chunks of ice and hitting icebergs like kickers. It was really exciting to shoot,” he said.

Sampson came up with the idea for a mainstream kiteboarding TV show with Discovery executives. He said the purpose of the show  is to showcase the sport to non-kiters and wasn’t designed to entertain those who already ride.

“But we are getting a lot of positive feedback from the kiting world even though we don’t necessarily have the best riding,” he said.

Sampson filmed and edited a one-hour pilot in the Florida Keys, and Discovery gave him the green light—and green bills—to film five more episodes.

He said, “The challenge was to develop the story behind it, to be informational but entertaining.” The show is about the different adventures possible within the sport besides just riding at the local beach. Catchin’ Air shows the guys roughing it in nature, riding dune buggies and experimenting with landboarding for the first time.

Negotiations are in the works for a second six-episode season where the crew will shoot more extreme riding and pioneer even more new locations.

Hurdman and Reyngoudt hope another season will take them abroad. Hurdman said he wants to ride in Indonesia because of the waves and beautiful culture.

“It’s not every day you get to ride perfect world-class waves like there are there,” he said.