My boy just passed 1 year and while I've never surfed consistently to begin with, maybe 1-3 days a week max in summer and often way less in winter, I do find it even more challenging to get in a surf when I normally would have before becoming a parent.
It was perfectly illustrated this summer on Kauai. Wife and I went to one of our favorite Snorkel / Surf beaches, and historically she snorkels the inner lagoon and I paddle outside to surf, we're there 1-2 hours and it naturally works out for both of us. This time with the kid, its like okay you go snorkel I'll stay on the beach with him. By the time she's back in and says, okay you go surf, I'm thinking it's not going to work for me to be out there at least another 45 minutes with the kid already getting restless and her just sitting there for even longer than she went out snorkeling.
You have to have the discipline to dawn patrol / go early and get back shortly after the wife and kid wake up so you can get back in the support system. Other than that, you have to become an opportunist and just go with the flow and jump on it when you can.
I'm already paddling him around the pool on a Bodyboard, which is great because the kid is fairly secure between your arms, you can still grip the board well at the corners and control the rails with your elbows on the deck (although "delbow" is often frowned upon in the BB'ing world
) and with fins on you can motor around really well. Plan to take him out in some small surf soon. He's already been taken under several waves and coughed up a bit of seawater, handling it fine. They are so resilient. Please don't report me to CPS.
