Boarding school

The van is big and white and boxy and looks like it gets about 10 miles to the gallon. It's the type of gas-guzzling anachronism that screams summer camp. But there is something different about this standard-issue camp vehicle, affectionately known as the ''Brickvan" -- the surfboards stacked on its roof.

Its passengers aren't headed to the coast of Rye, N.H., to build sand castles or collect seashells. They're going to ride the waves.

For the last three summers, Mark Driscoll, 29, and Jamie Hosker, 32, who met surfing in Nahant as children, have run Boardweek, a summer surf camp that teaches children how to take advantage of the region's surprisingly fertile surfing turf. For $475, campers at Boardweek get use of a surfboard, a wet suit they can keep, five days of surf lessons, and the opportunity to turn their surfing fantasies into reality.

''It's different from other camps," Driscoll said. ''We take them and show them things they haven't seen. We're laissez-faire. We're not demanding or controlling. They get out there and the ocean takes care of them and keeps them in line.

''It's a cool camp, as opposed to making Popsicle-stick birdhouses."

Sponsored surfers who compete occasionally on the regional circuit, Driscoll and Hosker started the camp in 2003, shortly after they gave up their day jobs to open Brickhouse Boards, a surf shop in Marblehead. Driscoll, a Peabody native, had been a Spanish teacher, while Hosker, originally of Nahant, was a lawyer. Both are former lifeguards and both are certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (every Boardweek instructor is CPR certified).

The camp, which was designed to expose more young people to surfing and drum up business for Brickhouse, has proved to be a big hit. After attracting 50 wannabee wave riders the first summer, 100 signed up for one of the nine surfing sessions offered this summer. Driscoll said most of the campers are first-time surfers who hail from the North Shore communities of Swampscott, Marblehead, and Nahant. But the surf camp has drawn participants from as far away as Louisiana.

The Brickvan is important because the location of the camp can change from day to day, depending on surf conditions. On a recent summer day -- the second of a five-day session -- the waves were more favorable up north, so Driscoll and Hosker packed up the boards, piled their 10 campers (the maximum per session is 12) into the van, and headed across state lines to Jenness State Beach in Rye, N.H

Once the campers arrived at the beach, they changed into their wet suits and grabbed their boards. Before they were allowed to dive into the water with their surfboards, Driscoll provided a quick primer on paddling. Lying flat on his stomach on the sand, he pantomimed paddling out, catching a wave, and hopping up into a balanced surfing position. His students followed suit, repeating the drill a few times before heading out.

By normal surf standards the conditions were flat, according to Driscoll, with waves that crested at only 1 or 2 feet, but it felt like the Hawaiian pipeline to the campers. Driscoll and Hosker, who have gone on sojourns to surf paradises such as Peru, Hawaii, and Australia, said that winter is actually the prime surfing season in Massachusetts, when northeasters create wild waves

''I overheard one of the kids say to another, 'Look how big the waves are," said Driscoll, chuckling. ''The experience usually matches that expectation they have of the cool quotient [of surfing]. In fact, it usually exceeds it, especially if we have good waves."

Glen Darby of Marblehead, who has three children participating in the camp this summer -- Stephen, 14, Paige, 12, and Spencer, 9 -- said any apprehension he had about sending them to surfing camp has been washed away by their enthusiasm.

''They love it," said Darby. ''They are dead tired when they get home. I ask them to clean out their wetsuits and get ready for bed and there is no argument. They have no energy for an argument. They're in bed before I even have to say anything."

Hosker said it usually doesn't take campers long to get the hang of hanging 10. ''I'd say 80 percent get up the first day," said Hosker. ''We have kids that by the end of the week are trimming down the line." That's surfer speak for riding a wave parallel to the shore.

Spencer Darby is part of the 80 percent. Despite being the youngest surfer in the camp, the 9-year-old novice was one of the more consistent wave catchers, along with his friend Gus Egan, also of Marblehead. The general age range for the camp is 10 to 15, although exceptions are made for experienced swimmers who are younger. At one point, Darby and Egan caught the same wave and rode it to shore together, chatting all the way.

''It's not as hard as I thought it would be to learn," said Egan, who learned to surf at the camp last year and returned for a second stint this summer. ''The hardest part is learning when to jump up on the board. But I've gotten quite better since last year."

Neither Darby nor Egan expressed any fear of wiping out, which they both did their fair share of.

''If I wipe out, I just get back up," said Spencer.

To lessen the likelihood of injuries and make it easier to learn to surf, the boards used at the camp are soft-tops, constructed out of polyurethane foam. They are lighter and have more grip than regular boards.

Two measures of the camp's success are that it relies primarily on word of mouth to draw campers and that it frequently attracts repeat campers.

Surf camps are common on the West Coast, but still something of a novelty in the region. Surf shops in Hampton, N.H. and Seabrook, N.H. also offer instructional surfing sessions. The uniqueness of the camp is one of its primary drawing cards. Of the four remaining Boardweek sessions this summer, two are already sold out.

''This is the best camp that I've ever gone to," said Justin Burnett, 12, of Marblehead, who was attending the camp for the third time. ''It's not competitive like other [sports] camps. They make it fun and you get a lot of time in the water."

That's the idea, Hosker said: to make the camp fun and introduce surfing to a new generation. He said that the most rewarding part is going surfing and seeing former campers surfing on their own.

''The idea always has been to create little surfers and let them out on their own," said Hosker. ''We are building a community. And hopefully 10 years down the road we'll have a more educated, avid crowd."

But this summer they'll settle for molding young surfers one wave at a time.

For more information on Boardweek go to www.brickhouseboards.com.Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com