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Too soon? Father takes nine-month-old son bodyboarding

Baby bodyboarding

A nine-month-old’s first bodyboarding experience off the coast of Puerto Rico appears to be both terrifying and exhilarating.

“It is the first time we have ever seen a baby getting barrelled!” wrote Sam Bennet for Surf-Report.

"My son [sic] first try,” the boy’s father, Jorge Tirado, wrote under the viral video. “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 you [sic] spiritual, mental and physical health.”

Viewers are feeling just as torn about the video of the little guy’s time in the water as he is: Was it a fun introduction to the waves, or a too-dangerous one?

Sandra Gartland, a surf instructor and mother of two, watched the video and took no issue with teaching such a young child about the ocean — she took her own son out on a surfboard when he was 10 months old — but she did have some safety reservations.

"He’s teaching the child about the water and the ocean, and that is a nice way to introduce your baby to the ocean,” she told TODAY.com. “But I would definitely have a lifejacket on that child. I could see how someone would say something when seeing (the child without a lifejacket).”

(Some defenders of the video explained in the comments that a lifejacket would have kept them from getting under the wave, defeating the whole purpose of bodyboarding.)

Garland added that the parents in the video — the mom was also in the water — appear to be very experienced and comfortable in the ocean.

“That’s a big difference between somebody who might never have been surfing and just decides one day to rent a board and bring their kid out there,” she said.

What do you think? Is this an example of irresponsible parenting, or parenting at its best?