Luke Marks drops into a clean, peeling wave during a recent surf session. Marks is part of a big surfing family, but the five-year-old also swims competitively.

At five years old, Luke Marks is ready to embark on his first day of kindergarten. But Luke is no ordinary five year old.

At 3-foot-10, and all of 56 pounds, Luke is known as both one of the best swimmers and surfers in the state of Florida.

“My favorite thing in the world to do is surf,” said the youngster. “To become a good surfer you have to practice.”

Luke, a Deerfield Beach resident, was featured in Eastern Surfing Magazine, one of the biggest surfing magazines in the nation, in both May and June of this year.

He started surfing as a four-year-old.

“As cool as it is to have all this attention, we try to keep him grounded,” explained his father, Darren Marks, who has encouraged Luke in everything he has done. “We have to keep him five.

“As a father, when you go out surfing with him, it’s neat watching guys that have been surfing for 20 years get stoked about him,” he continued.

As a swimmer, Luke has posted the most impressive resume around for anyone his age. Since he began competitive swimming in 2002, Luke is 34-0 competing in the 7-Under age group.

In 2003, Luke joined the Broward Aquatics swim team.

“I like swimming a lot, but not as much as surfing,” Luke said after getting out of the pool with some of his neighborhood friends, who also surf. “The only thing I like more than surfing is my family.”

Luke has a younger brother, Zach, who at four years old has slowly followed his brother’s footsteps into the worlds of surfing and swimming, but is leaning more toward skateboarding.

“Zach is on the swim team just like his older brother,” Darren Marks said. “We call him Z-Ball because when he jumps in the pool, he manages to make these huge cannonballs. He skateboards. He has a passion for skateboarding, and he surfs with us, too,” Darren said with a smile.

“I love to go up the ramps and go real high,” Zach Marks said.

Luke also has a sister, Caroline, who at two years old is proving that she could potentially be every bit as good or an even better surfer than her older siblings.

“She probably has more talent than both of them when it comes down to it. She can actually skateboard, and surf the baby waves all on her own. She can ride a two-wheel bike and can already swim a 25-yard pool,” her father said with bright eyes. “She’s definitely the craziest of them.”

The Marks recently had their fourth child, Jack, who was born on August 7th. “He’s our newest future ripper,” Darren remarked.

“I go on my board with Zach, Luke is on his own, and my wife Sarah takes Caroline and Jack. Everything we do is together,” he said. “We get invited to all these different places because of Luke that we would normally never be able to go to, and turn it into a family event.”

	The Marks surfing siblings are (standing from left to right) Zach, Luke and Caroline Marks. Also pictured is three-week-old Jack Marks.

PBS has already recorded a 10-minute special all about Luke that will air this September. The film of Luke surfing was recorded in Orlando, where Luke and his family and friends were able to tear it up at Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon water park - a massive wave pool that is rented out during the morning and night to surfers.

“The second biggest wave I caught was eight feet at Typhoon Lagoon,” Luke remembered. “The biggest was 10-feet in Stuart.”

Currently sponsored by many large corporations, including Oakley, On A Mission (OAM), Ezera Surfboards, Hamaya Sunscreen, and Surf World, Luke never feels the pressure that some seem to think he must constantly receive.

“We don’t pressure him to go out there and practice everyday,” his father said. “He wakes up in the morning and asks if we can go out and surf, or if he can go swimming in the pool.”

“It’s fun to coach him because he listens, and it’s fun to watch him because he’s a kid,” said his swimming coach Larry Blumberg. “He’s great to be around. When the volume gets high it’s because the crowd is cheering for him, not because he does something wrong.”

“They say that kids are fearless, but if you put the average five-year-old up against an eight foot wave, they’ll be in fear,” Darren said as he sat next to his son. “He has a lot of confidence in everything he does.”

If there is just one word you could use to describe Luke Marks, it would have to be fearless.