Community Projects
Community has always been at the heart of what we do at South Shields Surf School. When we started in 2016, with eight boards and a van, our main goal was to promote physical and mental wellbeing, through ocean access.
We became a community interest company in 2019 to develop our social impact. As we grow, our community outreach prospects do too. 2020 saw our development of Project Surf, set up to deliver specialised surf lessons to people with disabilities and autistic people. In 2021 Sea Company was established by a local veteran, to improve outreach and access to ocean therapy for other veterans. We work with Beach Access North East to provide free loan of all terrain wheelchairs from the surf school base. Pay it Forward is a scheme we use where anybody who attends the surf school can add a voluntary donation to help fund our community projects.
Through the years our priorities and values have remained the same, to share our beloved sport far and wide, to maximise access to the ocean and to improve the wellbeing of the people who comes to us. As surfers we always try to describe the rush that comes with catching your first wave or seeing the smile on somebodies face as they get into the ocean for the first time. Our projects allow us to give others a piece of that incredible feeling and continually remind us why we love the ocean.