Latest news with #TheWaveProject
Scotsman
12-08-2025
- Scotsman
Stephen Spencer on biking 1,000 miles for The Wave Project: 'these volunteers make magic happen'
The surf therapy offered by the Wave Project charity helps young people going through tough times – and the results can be life-changing, writes Roger Cox Sign up to our Scotsman Rural News - A weekly of the Hay's Way tour of Scotland emailed direct to you. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Earlier this summer, 60-year-old Stephen Spencer from Montrave in Fife set out to complete a 1,034 mile cycle around the UK to raise funds for surf therapy charity The Wave Project. It's a journey that includes some 46,000 feet of ascent, so when he calls me from the side of a road in Devon mid-way through a full day's cycling, and his mobile phone reception is so bad he's barely audible, I naturally suggest that he should try getting to higher ground. Because of course, that's exactly what he'll be in the mood for: yet more climbing. Stephen Spencer taking part in a Wave Project session at Towan Beach in Newquay during his 1,000-mile bike ride | Robyn Steady / @rsteadyphotography Impressively, once he's trudged up a nearby hill in order to make himself heard, he's still in good spirits. 'Stephen, how are you?' I ask. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I would've been better if I hadn't just had to climb about 150 feet up this hill!' he laughs. 'But 150 feet in the context of 5,000 feet – that's today's climb – doesn't really matter.' I ask him to describe his current location. 'I'm somewhere to the north-east of Plymouth,' he says, 'in a very picturesque place full of gorse bushes and what appear to be wild ponies. And I'm 70 miles into today's cycle with 20 miles to go. I set off from Newquay this morning, and I'm heading to Paignton.' These locations aren't picked at random – Spencer's plan is to visit all 16 of the places around the UK where The Wave Project runs its surf therapy sessions, and, when he gets there, take part in those sessions as a volunteer. 'The aim of the cycle is to do surf therapy sessions along the way,' he says. 'So far I've done about ten. So it isn't just the cycle – there's also two hours of relatively rigorous work in the surf with the kids at every stop. I've already had so many amazing times on this trip, just being part of kids having their best day ever, catching the most waves they've ever caught, even introducing a few people to surfing for the first time.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Stephen Spencer at a Wave Project session at Tynemouth during his bike ride around Britain | Robyn Steady / @rsteadyphotography The Wave Project was established at Watergate Bay in Cornwall in 2011 with the aim of improving children's mental health and wellbeing through surf therapy, and it has since been rolled out across the UK. In Scotland there are now Wave Project hubs at Dunbar and St Andrews and at the Lost Shore surf resort at Ratho. 'Dunbar is where I started out on my surf therapy journey back in 2018,' Spencer says, 'and since then we've expanded out into St Andrews – that was three or four years ago – and then we started at Lost Shore last year. I coach and volunteer at all of them, but I live nearest to St Andrews.' Spencer first got involved with The Wave Project after seeing a collection box in the now-defunct Freeze surf and snow shop in Edinburgh. What appealed to him about it? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think two things,' he says. 'One, I know what surfing does for me in terms of giving me space to just be myself and re-energising me and helping me think things through. And I'd always had an inkling that there was something powerful about it that would make it beneficial to young people who were having a tough time of it. Young people live in a tough world at the moment, they have a lot to deal with.' Stephen Spencer at a Wave Project session at Tynemouth | Robyn Steady / @rsteadyphotography The emphasis at the Wave Project is on participation – while the end goal is to introduce young people to the joys of surfing, sometimes, particularly in the early stages, just getting them into the water can feel like a big step. The positive effects of the Wave Project's programmes have been well-documented, not least by Dr Jamie Marshall of Edinburgh Napier University – the world's first ever PhD in Surf Therapy. Spencer's first experience of volunteering was a memorable one. 'The first kid I volunteered with was a young lad called Sean,' he says, 'and even just seeing the impact those first two hours in the water had on him was incredible. He has Down's syndrome, amongst other things, and he was very much wanting to move into independent living. Along with that condition comes a lot of hugginess and happiness, but this was also about giving him ways to cope with that and how to behave around other people, and he did amazingly.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad After his spell with the Wave Project, Sean did indeed move into independent living. 'He sent me a mail a couple of years ago saying 'I've got my own flat!'' remembers Spencer. 'He put a lot of work into that – we were just an assist – but it's nice to have been part of it.' Stephen Spencer | Robyn Steady / @rsteadyphotography There are two main aspects to the work the Wave Project does: therapy sessions for those who have been referred by either a GP, CAHMS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) or their school, and then Surf Club, which offers social surf sessions for those who have completed a six-week course of therapy but want to retain their links to the Wave Project and to keep on surfing. 'We've got about 250 kids in Surf Club and in Scotland each year 200 young people complete a six-week surf therapy course,' says Spencer, 'and that's on a full-time staff of four. The Wave Project provides a Cartier therapy solution at Primark money. 'The real heroes are our volunteer surf mentors who work one-to-one with our surfers. These amazing people give their time and energy at every session to make the magic happen.'
Fashion Network
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
White Stuff continues 40th-year celebration with south coast ice-cream truck tour
With the UK summer comes the obligatory arrival of the ice-cream van. And fashion/lifestyle brand White Stuff is using its seasonally welcome appeal to its own advantage with a promotional/nostalgic Ice Cream Truck Tour to locations along England's south coast. As part of the brand's continuing its 40th anniversary celebrations, the community-led activation is designed to engage local audiences near key White Stuff store regions. It's already visited St Ives and Truro, sand continues its route with stops in Dartmouth, Exeter, Brighton, Eastbourne and Whitstable until 26 July, operating 11am-4pm daily. It's serving free ice cream while also hosting a 'Spin to Win' activation, where visitors can win a limited-edition White Stuff anniversary tee, a nod to the brand's early beginnings, selling T-shirts from the back of a car while travelling around the UK. Four decades on, the Ice Cream Truck Tour 'channels that same spirit of creativity, freedom and grassroots connection. With a focus on engaging local store communities, the tour brings the brand to life in fun, unexpected ways - offering customers a memorable summer moment rooted in real-world connection', said Emma Spratt, interim head of brand at White Stuff. Also in St Ives, the brand has partnered with the local Surf School to offer free surf lessons and equipment hire while donating £1,000 to youth mental health charity The Wave Project.
Fashion Network
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
White Stuff continues 40th-year celebration with south coast ice-cream truck tour
With the UK summer comes the obligatory arrival of the ice-cream van. And fashion/lifestyle brand White Stuff is using its seasonally welcome appeal to its own advantage with a promotional/nostalgic Ice Cream Truck Tour to locations along England's south coast. As part of the brand's continuing its 40th anniversary celebrations, the community-led activation is designed to engage local audiences near key White Stuff store regions. It's already visited St Ives and Truro, sand continues its route with stops in Dartmouth, Exeter, Brighton, Eastbourne and Whitstable until 26 July, operating 11am-4pm daily. It's serving free ice cream while also hosting a 'Spin to Win' activation, where visitors can win a limited-edition White Stuff anniversary tee, a nod to the brand's early beginnings, selling T-shirts from the back of a car while travelling around the UK. Four decades on, the Ice Cream Truck Tour 'channels that same spirit of creativity, freedom and grassroots connection. With a focus on engaging local store communities, the tour brings the brand to life in fun, unexpected ways - offering customers a memorable summer moment rooted in real-world connection', said Emma Spratt, interim head of brand at White Stuff. Also in St Ives, the brand has partnered with the local Surf School to offer free surf lessons and equipment hire while donating £1,000 to youth mental health charity The Wave Project.
Fashion Network
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
White Stuff continues 40th-year celebration with south coast ice-cream truck tour
With the UK summer comes the obligatory arrival of the ice-cream van. And fashion/lifestyle brand White Stuff is using its seasonally welcome appeal to its own advantage with a promotional/nostalgic Ice Cream Truck Tour to locations along England's south coast. As part of the brand's continuing its 40th anniversary celebrations, the community-led activation is designed to engage local audiences near key White Stuff store regions. It's already visited St Ives and Truro, sand continues its route with stops in Dartmouth, Exeter, Brighton, Eastbourne and Whitstable until 26 July, operating 11am-4pm daily. It's serving free ice cream while also hosting a 'Spin to Win' activation, where visitors can win a limited-edition White Stuff anniversary tee, a nod to the brand's early beginnings, selling T-shirts from the back of a car while travelling around the UK. Four decades on, the Ice Cream Truck Tour 'channels that same spirit of creativity, freedom and grassroots connection. With a focus on engaging local store communities, the tour brings the brand to life in fun, unexpected ways - offering customers a memorable summer moment rooted in real-world connection', said Emma Spratt, interim head of brand at White Stuff. Also in St Ives, the brand has partnered with the local Surf School to offer free surf lessons and equipment hire while donating £1,000 to youth mental health charity The Wave Project.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Surfathon raises money for charity project
Surfers have taken to the waves for a 12-hour event on a North Devon beach to raise money for a charity project. Surf therapy charity The Wave Project hosted its Inclusive Surfathon at Croyde beach on Friday to fundraise for its adaptive surfing programme, which provides opportunities for people with physical disabilities to try the sport. During the day instructors and volunteers offered support to surfers. Ian Bennett, inclusive lead at the charity, said there had been a lot of planning for the event and the end result was "amazing". Mr Bennett said more than 30 volunteers had helped about 20 surfers who had visited from across the country during the surfathon. The 2024 BBC South West Unsung Hero award winner added he hoped the event would be a showcase for the importance of the adaptive surfing programme. "It's so difficult to access the ocean for someone with a physical disability", he said. "It's an expensive sport for us to enable more access to more people, but breaking down these barriers and raising that money to help that happen, that's what it's all about." More news stories for Devon Listen to the latest news for Devon Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@ Boy inspires charity to help others hit the surf 'Nothing stops me,' says surfer with one leg Adaptive surf instructor wins Unsung Hero award The Wave Project
