Barrel Baby!

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Howls of protest echoed across cyberspace after Tirado, 43, and his wife took their baby into the surf in Puerto Rico, and filmed it.

When he posted the one minute edit on Vimeo he proudly proclaimed: “My son first try. Thanks to everyone. I encourage you to safely bring your kids to the ocean, after all the ocean is the place where it all began. By far, this is the best sport for your spiritual, mental and physical health. Enjoy!”

The video depicts smiling onlookers round Tirado as he prepares to go surfing. The film cuts to the baby and Dad paddling out, shot through a GoPro mounted on the front of the bodyboard facing backwards. The chubby-cheeked baby, wearing a little chafe vest, looks like a life-sized bobblehead in the foreground. You can see his grinning dad behind him, holding his child on the board.

Closeup footage shows water surging around the baby as they get tubed, and getting pulled underwater too, it appears. Much of the ensuing debate depended on whether people thought the experience enthralled or terrified the child.

World media picked up the story, including the New York Post, Daily Mail UK and Huffington Post, and a ton of TV stations in the US. The video has been viewed almost two million times.

Responses have been vastly different. The response by www.TheBlemish.com was clear: “Surfer Dad Shares Love of Ocean by Nearly Drowning 9-Month Old Son." www.HuffingtonPost.com  liked it: “Baby Surfing First Wave Is The Epitome Of Pure Bliss.”

This basic division recurred all over the Web. Angry comments were juxtaposed with congratulation and stoke. Horrified parents weighed in. Positive comments appeared to come from those sans kids.

“There's more at stake than just potentially drowning,” said one dad. “A child's neck is not developed to withstand the pressure of the water hitting him in such a situation. Then there's the trauma of being scared to death (a natural response to a life threatening situation) that could f*** him up for life. The father is a moron.”

A friend of the father fought back against the criticism by claiming that the father was a veteran surfer with 35 years surfing experience who had planned the day very carefully. He had five surfers, including a lifeguard, in attendance, and chose a very small day at the surf spot.

As a parent, I would be extremely nervous to do this, and terriefied of losing or hurting him, but perhaps that’s a knee-jerk response honed for hundreds of thousands of years by evolution’s bid to ensure survival of the species.

You decide.

Meanwhile, see the story of Jesse Jason, the six month old skate and surf star!

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Here are some of the responses to the first video. Google for more!

"That just inspired me to do the running of the bulls with my kid strapped to me in a baby bjorn."

"That's great! love this :-)"

"What an idiot"

"I wonder how the parents would feel if the infant was injured."

"Great father. Loving father. Lucky baby. That boy's gonna become a natural in the water. Enjoy the blissful joy of surfing probably for the entirety of his life, something that will remain "foreign" and even "supernatural" for the vast majority of humanity, less fortunate humanity. Lucky, lucky boy."

"Grossly irresponsible father."

"Safely" this is not safe at ALL my!! What happens when you loose control. At least put a life vest on the baby. My god this is so dangerous..."

"NO flotation aids whatsoever on the baby?!?!?! Are you fucking kidding me?!?!?!"