The Donkey Who Wanted to Surf

Benji was a donkey with very long ears, a very loud voice, and a very BIG dream. He wanted to be a surfer.

Now, you might be thinking, “Donkeys can’t surf!” And Benji’s friends thought the same thing.

“Donkeys don’t surf!” brayed his cousin Clara. “We carry things! We eat hay! We say HEE-HAW!”

But Benji had seen surfers on TV in the farmhouse window. They glided across sparkling blue waves like they were dancing with the ocean. And Benji thought it looked like the most magnificent thing in the whole entire world.

So one sunny morning, Benji clip-clopped his way down to Seaside Beach.

The seagulls squawked in surprise. “Look! A donkey!”

“I’m here to surf!” announced Benji proudly.

The seagulls laughed so hard they nearly fell off their rock. “You? SURF? But you have four legs! And hooves! And you’re… well, you’re a donkey!”

Benji’s ears drooped a little, but he lifted his chin high. “Every surfer has to start somewhere!”

He spotted a surfboard rental shack painted bright pink and purple. Behind the counter sat Sunny, a sea turtle who moved very, very slowly and talked even slower.

“Helloooooo,” said Sunny. “Can… I… help… youuuuu?”

“I need a surfboard, please!” said Benji, jingling the coins in his small pouch.

Sunny blinked her ancient eyes. “You… are… a… donkey.”

“Yes! I know! I still want to surf!”

“Hmmm,” said Sunny. And after thinking for approximately seven minutes (which is very fast for a sea turtle), she said, “Okaaaaay.”

Sunny gave Benji the biggest, strongest surfboard she had. It was bright orange with purple polka dots.

Benji carried the surfboard in his teeth all the way to the water. This was tricky because the surfboard was very wide, and Benji kept bonking other beach-goers on the head.

“Sorry! Excuse me! Pardon me! Surfing donkey coming through!”

When he reached the waves, Benji realized his first problem. How do you get ON a surfboard with four hooves?

He tried jumping on it. SPLASH! He fell right off.

He tried tiptoeing on it. SPLASH! He fell off again.

He tried doing a fancy spin-jump he’d invented himself. SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! He fell off three times at once, which should have been impossible.

A pelican named Pete flew down. “Need some help?”

“I need to figure out how to stand on this board!” said Benji, shaking water from his ears.

“Well,” said Pete thoughtfully, “maybe donkeys don’t stand on surfboards. Maybe they do something different.”

Benji thought about this. Then he had an idea—a SPECTACULAR idea!

He lay down on his belly on the surfboard, with all four legs tucked around the sides.

“Now push me toward a wave!” he called.

Pete and three of his pelican friends grabbed the back of the board with their beaks and paddled Benji out to where the waves were forming.

“Ready?” called Pete.

“READY!” shouted Benji.

A beautiful green wave rose up behind him. Pete and his friends let go, and suddenly—WHOOOOSH!—Benji was surfing!

Well, he was lying down and surfing, but he was DEFINITELY surfing!

“WHEEEEE!” brayed Benji at the top of his lungs. “HEE-HAW-COWABUNGA!”

He zoomed toward the beach, water spraying everywhere, his ears flapping like flags in the wind. All the beach animals stopped what they were doing to watch.

The seagulls stopped squawking.

The crabs stopped scuttling.

Even Sunny the turtle said, “Wowwww,” in only three seconds, which was extremely fast for her.

Benji rode the wave all the way to the sand, where he stepped off his board as gracefully as a donkey can step (which means he tripped a little but caught himself).

The whole beach erupted in cheers!

“That was AMAZING!” chirped a tiny sandpiper.

“You really DID it!” admitted the seagulls.

Benji’s cousin Clara, who had followed him to the beach, trotted up with tears in her eyes. “Benji, I’m sorry I said donkeys can’t surf. You just proved that if you really want to do something, you should try—even if nobody’s ever done it before!”

From that day on, Benji surfed every single morning. He never could stand up on the board (hooves just weren’t made for that), but his belly-surfing style became famous all along the coast.

Soon, other animals wanted to try surfing in their own special ways. A snake learned to surf in an S-curve. A rabbit hopped from board to board. And a very brave chicken surfed while clucking the entire time, though nobody was quite sure why.

But Benji was the one who started it all—Benji, the donkey who wanted to surf, and who discovered that sometimes the best way to follow your dream is to do it YOUR way, even if it’s different from everyone else.

And every night, as the sun set over Seaside Beach, you could hear Benji’s happy voice carrying across the waves: “HEE-HAW-COWABUNGA!”

The End

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