Latest news with #WaveProject
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.'
ITV News
18-05-2025
- General
- ITV News
Surfers unite at sewage protests across the south
Campaigners from the south have joined a nationwide protest against sewage pollution in our seas and rivers. Surfers, swimmers and kayakers took part in a mass Paddle-Out at more than 40 sites across the country, including Brighton, Hastings, Boscombe, Ryde, Bournemouth and Lyme Regis, and at Victoria Park Boating Pond in Newbury. Co-ordinated by the environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), the protests called for transformational reform of the water industry. They believe sewage pollution remains a threat to the UK's blue spaces and public health. The protests took place at the start of the official bathing season in England and Wales - which runs from 15 May to 30 September. Last year, there were 8,704 sewage discharges in England during the bathing season, an average of more than 60 a day. Stuart Davies, organiser of the Brighton Pier Paddle-Out Protest said: 'We are paddling out to call for total reform of the water industry because we seem to be in the same place each year. "We see record levels of sewage pollution in our blue spaces, especially here on the south coast. "It makes me extremely angry. Many a time, I have been personally affected. I can't go sea swimming. I can't go surfing. "I also volunteer for the Wave Project which provides surf therapy for young people. That's been cancelled a few times, and we couldn't go in the water." Giles Bristow, CEO at Surfers Against Sewage said: 'Our failing water industry has been trumpeting billions in investment to clean up their act, but we know that these fat cat bosses can't be trusted to keep their promises. "The proof is in the missed targets, shocking statistics and devastating stories of sickness we continue to see year after year. "We've had enough of their lies, greed and incompetence and know that this nightmare will not end until the whole water system is radically reformed." Southern Water says their Clean Rivers and Seas Plan shows how they intend to reduce storm overflows across the region. They say they have invested £1.6 billion into the company in recent years, to help deliver a "significant programme of improvement." On their website Thames Water says "We want to be very clear on our stance. "Putting untreated sewage into rivers is unacceptable to us, our customers and the environment.
The Independent
17-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Thousands turn out for paddle out protests over ‘sewage scandal'
Thousands of people voiced their anger of the spilling sewage into UK waters at dozens of 'paddle out' protests held across the country. At more than 40 beaches, rivers and lakes across the UK, people armed with boards and placards take to the water to demand urgent reform of the water industry in events organised by the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. It comes as new Opinium polling suggested that fewer than one in five people believe they will able to swim safely at their local bathing spot by 2030 without risking their health as a result of sewage pollution. And the survey of 2,000 people found just 21 per cent of respondents trusted the government to ensure water suppliers reduce sewage spills, with more than half a million discharges into our seas, lakes and rivers in 2024. Data released by the Environment Agency in March showed water companies released a record amount of raw sewage into England's rivers and seas last year. The Independent Water Commission is currently reviewing its evidence before making recommendations to government on reforming the water industry. Stuart Davies, an organiser of the Brighton protest, said: 'We are paddling out because we seem to be in the same place each year. We see record levels of sewage pollution in our blue spaces, especially here on the south coast. 'Many a time, I have been personally affected. I can't go sea swimming. I can't go surfing. I also volunteer for the Wave Project which provides surf therapy for young people. That's been cancelled a few times, and we couldn't go in the water. It makes me extremely angry. 'We are paddling out in protest of the scandal and to call for total reform of the water industry.' The Independent recently donated £20,000 to Surfers Against Sewage to help support the group's work, as new figures revealed the number of beauty spots deemed unfit for swimming because of sewage had doubled in a year. Of England's 451 protected bathing spots, 37 are now rated as poor – the lowest category – because they contain unsafe levels of potentially deadly bacteria, including E coli and intestinal enterococci, due to sewage spills.
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘I've had seals nibble my toes!' How sunkissed Cornwall became a 422-mile surf paradise
'I had no friends,' says Charlotte Banfield, 'and no interests. I was very depressed. It was all going to end very badly indeed for me.' Banfield – who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism, and was being bullied at school – thought of taking her life. But then, aged 13, she was enrolled by her mum in a six-week surfing course run by the Wave Project, which helps to improve children's confidence and ease their anxiety through riding breakers. It was a pivotal moment, not least because Banfield was about to be excluded from school. Her first surf class was a disaster, though. 'I had a phobia of water. I couldn't stand it on my skin. I ran away and locked myself in the car.' But something – perhaps the sense that there was 'no pressure' – brought her back. 'When I went up on my first wave, I felt free for the first time in my life.' This liberation turned her life around. 'I went back into education and, though I left school with no GCSEs, I got a masters in marine biology. Surfing gave me confidence.' It gave her more than that. Now 26, Banfield is a gold medal-winning world para surf champion, one whose achievement is celebrated in Surf! 100 Years of Waveriding in Cornwall, an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Falmouth, her home town. 'It was an honour when I won a gold and beyond an honour to get mentioned in this museum,' she says as we chat in its cafe. 'I used to come here on school trips. I remember hiding from teachers in the boats on display.' Although surfing dates back thousands of years, and is particularly associated with Polynesians who settled in Hawaii about 400AD, the pursuit has become as much part of Cornwall's heritage as pasties, piracy and painting. There is a Cornish word that helps explain why: 'mordros', meaning the ever-present sound of the sea. You don't get that in Wolverhampton. Then there's the light. 'In Cornwall,' writes geographer Dr Sam Bleakley, 'we are bathed in reflected light from the Atlantic.' Bleakley, a European longboard champion and senior lecturer in cultural tourism at Falmouth University, curated the show at the NMM. He says surfing is different in Cornwall, thanks to the soft sandy beaches that dot its 422 miles (680km) of surfable coastline from Bude to Falmouth. 'You can ride in the shallows in a way that is different from the surf breaks of Polynesia,' he says. What's more, this county is wide open to the Atlantic swell all year round. One of the great pleasures, says Cornish-born former pro Robyn Davies, is rising up on a wave that has travelled 4,000 miles across the ocean before smashing into Porthleven, Porthmeor, Penzance or Perranporth. The history the show tells is of a Cornish surf culture rising on a tide swollen by foreign influences. What Bleakley calls the 'tin-mining diaspora' witnessed surfing in Tahiti, Hawaii, west and south Africa – not least off Muizenberg near Cape Town, where Agatha Christie reportedly surfed in 1922. Boards and the surf bug came back with these travellers and, by 1937, the railways were advertising glorious, sun-drenched surfing holidays in the West Country. During the second world war, US troops stationed at RAF St Mawgan near Newquay reportedly enchanted locals with their daredevil techniques. But it was four Australian lifeguards – Bob Head, Ian Tiley, John Campbell and Warren Mitchell – who revolutionised surfing in Cornwall when they arrived 63 years ago, astounding Newquay locals with their 'hotdog surfing' on fibreglass longboards. To the sound of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean playing from pirate radio stations, surfing became part of the swinging 60s. Surfboard artisans sprang up, their slick creations now celebrated in the show. Among them is Chris 'CJ' Jones who sculpted boards from wood, carbon fibre, paint and even recycled plastics. 'They were and remain works of art,' says Stuart Slade, NMM's director as he shows me around. By the late 1960s, Newquay was being branded as Surf City – and Cornwall as Britain's California. That said, surfing was once banned after feuding gangs of bodyboarders and longboarders (surfing's equivalent of mods and rockers) brawled on the beaches of Newquay. Ostensibly the most chillaxed of pastimes, surfing became regarded by some as a violent threat to public order. This is one of the many tensions explored in the show. Surfing is both a tourist money spinner and counter-cultural lifestyle. It has also involved the Californication of Cornwall, pitting swinging surfers against strait-laced stuffed shirts. Ever since surfing became an Olympic sport in 2020, another tension has become clear. Is waveriding, like skateboarding or BMX-ing, fundamentally a sport whose essentially rebellious nature can only get lost in the competition for medals or world records? Whatever the answer, Cornwall has become a breeding ground for world champions and industries that recognise surfing's therapeutic benefits and wish to make it a sport for all. On that last point, I am struck by the displays of surf couture in the show, from wet suits so tight they're almost fetish wear, to a loose-fitting, body-covering surfing hijab designed by local firm Finisterre. Bleakley's nicest conceit is to tell the story of the past 100 years through 100 surfboards. One is a coffinboard, so named because in the 1920s the first bodyboards were made by carpenters who specialised in coffins. There's a photo of one being held by a female surfer at Fistral beach in 1926, sticking it to West Country patriarchs who deemed surfing unsuitable for women. By contrast, there's a wall of gleaming lacquered boards, several designed by Damien Hirst, whose former partner, California-born Maia Norman, is a keen surfer. Hirst's designs were auctioned in 2003 for the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. Nearby, we encounter a surfboard found in a Newquay garden and dusted off for the show. Once the world's longest board, it's 37ft long and looks like the kind of thing Team GB would use if the six-person bobsleigh ever switched to the sea. For all the show's surf positivity, Banfield's rise suffered setbacks, not least in 2021 when a seizure hit during a surf competition in California. 'It was so humiliating,' she says. 'I was underwater for a minute and couldn't move. My body felt so heavy. I had to be helped by another surfer.' Worse was to come. 'I was banned from competition until I got my epilepsy under control. That made me incredibly depressed. I went to a very dark place. I tried to take my own life. It was very clear to me that the ocean had kept me sane. When I go in the water, my mind becomes completely calm.' Happily, with some coaching and medication adjustments, Banfield was able to start competing again. Last year, she won another gold at the world championships. 'I still have bad days,' she says. 'When I do, I get my surfboard, get my wetsuit, get in the car and go.' Davies, many times national surfing champion, echoes this sentiment. 'Surfing's almost a spiritual experience. It's humbling – because you find out very quickly that you can't master nature. But the very present danger is also an adrenaline rush. The epitome of this is when you get barrelled.' Eh? She cups her fingers to show me: barrelling means riding inside a hollowed-out breaking wave. 'Time seems to extend. You feel like you've been in there for ages when it's scarcely been seconds. It's pure stoke. Epic.' It also sounds quite dangerous. 'It is – but then surfing is dangerous and exhilarating at the same time. There aren't many sports where you could be eaten by a wild animal. I've seen sharks, which is scary. And, in Mexico, I've been very close to whales breaching.' This is when they propel their bodies out of the water and land back on the surface with explosive force. Davies lists more dangers: 'Seals have nibbled my toes.' That doesn't sound too scary, I say. 'They were really big seals,' she replies. Then there was the time she wiped out at Pipeline in Hawaii, a reef break notorious for rip currents and underwater caves. 'I hit bottom and pushed off with my feet – only to hit rock. I thought I was going to drown, until I saw a gap and managed to swim to the surface.' A car crash ended Davies's competitive career, but she still longboards and insists that it's never too late to learn. 'I taught an 80-year-old woman whose dream it was to stand on a board. She did it! I'm not saying it's easy, though. When you swim out to where the waves are, through foaming white water, it's hard – but it's worth it. I've never felt a connection with nature like it. I've never felt so good as when I'm surfing.' Surf! is at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth, 28 March to January 2027.
