Heady hady heady head
A South West charity is thinking of ways it can make surfing accessible to more disabled people – after being inspired by a Devon teenager who was desperate to hit the surf.Dozens of disabled people now take to the waves with volunteers at The Wave Project's adaptive surfing centre in North Devon.The charity's work was inspired by teenager George Palmer, now 17, who wanted to join other youngsters he saw out surfing at Croyde.Ian Bennett, the adaptive lead at the charity said: "We just really want the sea to be accessible to anybody. And if we can make that happen, then that's brilliant."
The Wave Project said it was now thinking of ways to improve the experience for adaptive surfing. Ideas from its team of volunteers include putting visual markers on boards to help surfers position themselves, and adding more handles to boards.Mr Bennett said The Wave Project did not offer adaptive surfing before they were contacted by George's mum Nicki to ask if they could help him. "I told her, 'actually, we don't do that, we are a mental health charity but I'm happy to give it a go'." A couple of days before they were due to go out, Mr Bennett asked about George's disabilities and discovered he had quadriplegic cerebral palsy, developmental delay, and epilepsy. "At that point, I wondered really why I'd said yes", said Mr Bennett. "I probably didn't sleep for the next two nights.Mr Bennett said George's first surf was a "medicore experience" but when he asked Surfing England for advice, he realised there was no one offering adaptive surfing.
The same year he took on another client, who had been a surfer before becoming disabled later in life, and said demand grew with more than 150 adaptive surfers now enjoying the waves at Croyde each year.The wave project also now has an army of volunteers and an arsenal of boards for adaptive surfers. Facilities at Croyde beach have also been developed to include a dedicated accessible changing place by the beach.Among the surfers is George, who has become a regular at Croyde beach, surfing at least once a month even in winter. Mr Bennett was the 2024 winner of the BBC South West Unsung Hero award for his work to develop adaptive surfing.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Bobby George lifts lid on Eric Bristow's wild lifestyle before he died aged 60
Eric Bristow, who died aged 60 of a heart attack, used to drink 16 pints of Guinness in a night while smoking non-stop before finishing the night by eating a curry Darts legend Eric Bristow passed away aged 60 after suffering a heart attack. And while he was shocked and saddened by his friend's sudden death, Bobby George had known he was on a self-destructive path. Bristow, known as the Crafty Cockney, won five World Masters during a storied darts career. He was the archetypal player of the 1980s scene, drinking, smoking, romancing and partying as hard as he played the sport. After a whirlwind life, which contained almost as many pints of Guinness as treble 20s, Bristow died on April 5, 2018 from a heart attack before a Premier League event in Liverpool. His death shocked George, who had been with his friend hours earlier and stayed the night in a pub ran by Bristow's driver in Stoke. Writing in 'Still Here! The King of Bling', as reported by The Sun, George said: 'Eric Bristow's death hit me hard. He was only 60 for f***'s sake. That's no age these days, is it? I had known him since he was a teenager – and he never changed. 'He could be a pain in the a*** and we had some right ding-dongs over the years. But for most of the time, he was my mate and we had some great times together.' The two were fierce rivals at the oche and, although they had their fair share of bust-ups, they remained close. George was witness to many ropey nights in bars, with one incident in America, when Bristow pretended to wipe his bottom on the stars and stripes, causing some particularly anxious moments. 'Anyone who knew him was aware that he didn't exactly lead a healthy lifestyle,' George writes in his new book. 'For as long as I'd known him, he was a heavy smoker, always rolling his own. 'And he would think nothing of getting through 15 or 16 pints of Guinness in a day, rounding it all off with a curry. Nobody's body can handle that day in, day out. Always on the go, working and travelling, meant he was always pushing it. "Although it wasn't work to him, just a chance to get on the p*** every day. I like a drink and a smoke but there are extremes and Eric pushed them to the limit. 'I'd say, 'You smoke and you drink too much'. He said, 'I know all about that, Bob. But put it this way, no one is going to be pushing me around in a wheelchair. When I go, I'll go like that. Bang'. And he f***ing did as well, bang.' Writing in his autobiography 'Eric Bristow: The Crafty Cockney', the man himself said: "If I had my life again I wouldn't change a thing, apart from one or two women I went out with."
Metro
4 days ago
- Metro
It's been 5 years since one of the best LGBTQ+ shows and I'm still obsessed
Mae Martin's semi-autobiographical show, Feel Good, remains one of the greatest gifts to LGBTQ+ TV five years after its premiere. The two-season comedy starring Mae as a fictionalised version of themselves and Charlotte Ritchie as their love interest George has to be one of my favourite depictions of queerness in all of its forms. The Channel 4 show first came out to plenty of acclaim and fanfare, securing it a second season and cultivating plenty of impressed fans along the way, myself included. For the uninitiated, the first episode opens on George (Ritchie), who is initially characterised as a stereotypical heterosexual woman on a comedy night out with her uptight friend Binky – and utterly enthralled by Mae's pithy stand-up set. When the two connect later that night, we embark on the charming, turbulent (often heartbreaking) story of their relationships that explores late-in-life coming out, self-empowerment, gender identity, and co-dependency. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. All of this is hooked onto the central throughline around Mae's past struggle with addiction, their attempts to stay sober, and reckoning with a traumatic past as they try to envision a future with George. Martin manages to write tender and evocative scenes depicting the pervasive ways that addiction has imploded not only Mae's life but those of the people around them – including their parents (portrayed by Lisa Kudrow and Adrian Lukis in the show). Meanwhile, George is by no means forgotten by the plot. We see her work through her fears around her identity, her anxieties around being another thing her partner is addicted to, her complex relationship with her parents and even question what she wants out of her career. Heck, even messy roommate Phil (portrayed by Phil Burgers) gets some tearjerking character development throughout the 12 episodes. What makes Feel Good so refreshing is – despite the difficult and heavy topics it deals with – it delivers them with such frankness and with so many well-weaved wisecracks in between that it also stands up as one of the funniest shows around. Whatever Mae and Charlotte were infusing into that script was comedy gold that can flip you from crying to laughing with a well-timed punchline. In a TV landscape where it is rare to see well-fleshed-out queer women and non-binary characters, Feel Good offers this representation in spades and makes no apologies for the fact that sometimes both George and Mae can be utterly unlikable. Yet you can't help rooting for them anyway. It is also one of my favourite depictions of love on screen. As something worth fighting for at its ugliest and messiest, because that's when you know there could be something beautiful underneath. The show knows exactly when to go all in on the madness, like the episode where George goes to a wedding for the day so Mae completely spirals and ends up on a completely mad dash with her (kind of) sponsor Maggie to stalk her daughter Lava (Rity Arya). Or the time Mae and George go to Blackpool to bury the ashes of Mae's cat Solomon with their parents, and the day breaks down into chaos. Or when Mae dresses up as a medieval knight and proposes to George in a school hall. The list goes on… But it also completely disarms you by interspersing the hijinks with moments of depth, such as when Mae admits to wearing black all the time because they are afraid to wear colour, and it breaks George's heart. Or when the couple talk about Mae's gender identity and George simply tells them, 'you tell me the right words and I'll use them'. Even the moment George realises that despite her whole life having changed after finding love with Mae, she still misses her old friends, despite the fact that they don't totally get her now. Strangely, it also serves as a time capsule of this golden time in the late 2010s/early 20s when we seemed to have reached the pinnacle of LGBTQ+ and women's rights. When championing trans rights was seen as the mainstream stance; calling out high-profile abusers hadn't completely devolved into a social media battle over wokery and cancellation; and the TV industry felt like it was making an active effort to platform complex queer stories told in full (rather than being cancelled premturely). I love how Charlotte and George are selfish and angry and enabling and scared. I love how queer intimacy is portrayed as something tender and heartfelt and kinky and messy and fragile and rough. Most of all, I love that we get a satisfying happy ending. No ifs, ands or buts. More Trending I'm desperate to see more British adult comedies explore the ever-evolving LGBTQ+ community through a queer female and non-binary lens that reach the same calibre as Feel Good. So, for those who have never seen it, this is your sign to watch it. Right now. And for those who have, what are you waiting for? It's overdue for a rewatch to hit you in the feels all over again. View More » Feel Good is available to stream on Netflix now. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: The words I wish I could say to my 17-year-old closeted self MORE: Holly Willoughby suffers major blow as Netflix show is 'axed' after one season MORE: I binge-watch TV for a living – here are my recommendations for June
Press and Journal
4 days ago
- Press and Journal
Lindsay Bruce: Sheila McDonald's tragic death shines spotlight on reality of Torry Raac scandal
The reality and the why behind our Trapped by Raac campaign has hit home in recent weeks. We recently lost one of our campaign stalwarts. Sheila McDonald, previously featured alongside husband George in our coverage, suffered a heart attack and died in the home she's been fighting to save. The couple had just celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary and are among throngs of defiant homeowners standing their ground to get fair prices for their Raac-riddled homes. The retired pair have never missed a protest. They've attended every community meeting. Both George and Sheila's faces are even on our Trapped by Raac poster. They epitomise why we launched the campaign in the first place; Because every day, honest, hard-working people aren't able to enjoy their lives – or their retirements – while the injustice of Raac is quite literally hanging over their heads. So I felt it impossible to let her loss pass, without paying tribute to her, and to acknowledge the Sheila-shaped hole in her community. I dropped my phone when the text arrived from George to let me know Sheila had passed. Just days before, we carried a report from Torry doctor Adrian Crofton about the long-term impact stress is having on the hearts and minds of the good people of Balnagask. Less than a week earlier I saw Sheila at the White Cockade where I joked with her that she was 'Torry famous' when she held up a poster bearing her own image. And it wasn't even a fortnight since I'd sat in George and Sheila's living room listening to them speak about how they felt their fate had been decided by seemingly uncaring councillors, scrolling on their phones. Sheila told me that day that her blood pressure was 'through the roof'. No wonder, I thought. As news spread in Torry about Sheila's death at the start of May, I kept hearing the same remarks. 'She was so faithful to the Torry Community Raac Campaign.' The reality of that filled me with such sadness. The last 18 months of Sheila's life have been encased in Raac. 'I wish I'd never retired,' she told me, because she felt her beautiful home was no longer a place of peace. When we ask for signatures and support – this is why. The lived reality for the 500+ households in Balnagask who had the Raac crisis thrust upon them, is so far from peaceful. For many it's at times more of a living agony. Through no fault of their own. These are grandparents, aunts and uncles. They're mums and dads. They're someone's grown-up children, first-time buyers, newlyweds… They are grandchildren, widows, people with disabilities, single people, married, young, old, working and retired. All on the brink of losing it all. And so this week I want to make a call directly to those in decision-making positions. I've researched this issue. I know the history. I've witnessed the political to-ing and fro-ing, and I'm aware of the costs involved. I realise housing is devolved. And that the Raac homes were built before this current ACC administration. Honestly, if it's been written about Raac, I've probably read it. So I ask you, knowing all that, We NEED a collegiate response to this crisis. We NEED elected leaders to be both fair and compassionate. And we NEED those whose job it is to serve the people, to put those people first. As we gathered to celebrate the life of Sheila, It was clear her legacy will be as a wonderful mother, grandmother, wife and a friend. She'll also be remembered, and will be much-missed as a tireless campaigner for those Trapped by Raac. I wonder if the legacies of Aberdeen City Council, and our national and UK governments will be similar? It's not too late to collegiately, creatively and compassionately do the right thing. People before politics, please. You can read the family announcement here.
