Generation Y Hits the Waves: Children can exercise their minds and bodies at the newest surf and tech summer camp location at UC San Diego

iD Tech Camps, the nations largest and most recommended computer and tech summer camp program, introduces their unique surf and tech program at UC San Diego for summer 2007. Kids will learn to surf in the morning and then can learn to design websites or video games in the afternoon at this hybrid summer camp program.

Generation Y lives in a media-saturated and pop-inundated world. Consequently the average Gen Y spends several hours each day in front of the TV, whereas in the past this time would have been devoted to physical activities. “Our society has become very sedentary,” said the Surgeon General. “Forty-three percent of adolescents watch more than two hours of television each day…which contribute to children’s inactive lifestyles.”

Tina Humphrey from Southern California saw firsthand how kids today are more tech savvy than athletic. Her children Sophie and Austin were no different. While they biked, hiked and rode horses, Tina wished they’d spend more time outside instead of glued to the TV for hours on end. When surfing the Internet one day, she was excited to discover a unique Surf & Tech summer camp program at iD Tech Camps. These Surf & Tech Camps are located at UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz.

iD Tech Camps wanted to reach more Gen Y kids that wouldn’t typically choose to surf.

And it worked.

The weeklong, day and overnight, Surf & Tech summer camp allows Gen Y kids to do something fun and physical in the sun, but also lets them focus on their high tech interest. Additionally, through iD Tech Camps, participants turn their video game and Internet passion into an educational experience where they learn how to develop a video game or design web pages. This stimulates their imagination and unleashes their creativity while also getting outside and being active in a fun sport like surfing.

“This program allows kids to find a good balance of academics and physical activities,” said Tina. “Typically if kids are into technology, they’re only into technology. And if kids are into sports, they’re only into sports. This Surf & Tech program makes kids more well-rounded and helps them find new possible passions through things they already enjoy doing.”

Austin and Sophie had previously caught waves, but only on boogie boards. Now they were excited to learn how to surf like pros. During half the day, they surfed on the Pacific Ocean while the other half of the day they spent in the computer lab. By the end of the week, besides surfing, Austin learned how to design a video game.

“It was super fun, everyone was up by the first day and I caught my wave right away,” said teenager Austin. “And the Multimedia Fusion software made it easy to take my ideas and transform them into a cool, multi level video game all in just one week.”

Austin has now become more critical when playing video games. “Now it annoys me when I play a game that lacks depth,” says Austin. “I know that the developer was lazy.”

Meanwhile, Austin’s sister Sophie applied her balancing skills from horseback riding and quickly caught waves. “Surfing was so much more fun than just boarding,” said Sophie. “The instructors were super nice and encouraging that each day I couldn’t wait to attack the waves.”

During the non-surfing portion, Sophie took the Web Design & Flash® Animation course so she could incorporate her artwork and drawings into a website. “I really liked exploring animations, and with Flash it was super easy to make my drawings come alive in 3D,” said Sophie. “Now when I surf the Internet I can see which pages took a lot of work and which ones were thrown together.”

About iD Tech Camps
iD Tech Camps provides weeklong, day and overnight, hands-on summer camp programs at 50 universities nationwide. This includes UC San Diego, UCLA, Cal Lutheran University, Pepperdine University, UC Irvine and Stanford University. Students use industry-standard products to film & edit digital movies, create 2D & 3D video games, design websites with Flash animation, build robots, learn programming and more. With one computer per student and an average of five students per staff, campers are given the attention they need to excel and take home a project at the end of the weeklong course.

To learn more about the unique surf and tech summer camps in California at UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, please visit http://surf-camp.internaldrive.com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324).

Contact Information

Karen Thurm Safran

Marketing

iD Tech Camps

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