Many surfers are environmentally aware, but wider community issues often seem to slip out of focus. One more perfect Indonesian barrel can be just another reason to forget that there are plenty of people whose backgrounds may pre-condition them to lives whose absence of stoke is their everyday reality. Fortunately, one initiative in Penzance is helping to ensure that the surfers' term of art, being stoked, is not a description of a feeling confined to an exclusive minority. The Home Office funded Positive Futures project is, according to its website, a “national social inclusion programme using sport and leisure activities to engage with the disadvantaged and socially marginalised young adults.” Positive Futures workers use a variety of sports, and in West Cornwall have found that surfing – for those who would never normally be exposed to it – is working wonders.
Trelya, a registered charity based in Penzance, is one of three Positive Futures projects in Cornwall and Devon. For all that West Cornwall has a strong artistic tradition, not to mention many excellent surf spots, its legacy of unemployment following the demise of the tin mining industry remains tangible, as does the fact that for all its idyllic beauty, pockets of Penwith are inhabited by people on the breadline. The area is also isolated and, in winter especially, the going can get tough. All this, to the summer tourist, is not readily apparent, as is the fact that for some people in Penzance, West Cornwall’s principal town, going to the beach is far from an everyday activity.
As Sam Coates, Trelya’s Projects Manager, says: “The Positive Futures programme has been set up to provide a number of activities, experiences, challenges and opportunities for disadvantaged young adults and children. This programme enables them to develop the skills, knowledge, awareness and motivation needed to make positive healthy choices about their lives. We’ve found that taking these groups surfing - something that they just wouldn't normally do - has a tremendous effect on their confidence, self-esteem and behaviour.”
Trelya has worked with Surfers Against Sewage, taking 12 young people to clear up Godrevy beach, and Sennen Surf Club, for whom Coates has plenty of praise: “They’ve been great, as have many other local surf schools. Our groups have surfed at Sennen, Godrevy and Newquay, and they’ve loved it. Surfing provides them with something positive and thrilling to do, as well as keeping them fit.” She adds that “some of them have real natural ability – they’re doing handstands on boards on their second or third go.” There is also the thrill engendered by being a part of Cornwall’s great outdoors: “Surfing gives our groups a feeling of pride in Cornwall and being Cornish.”
Trelya’s groups are also involved in exchanges with other youngsters from different parts of Britain. Being able to ride a board gives them a confidence in dealing with incomers, says Coates, as they enjoy teaching them some of the knowledge that they have gleaned from the local surf schools. Perhaps most intriguing, though, is this comment from Coates: “Seeing and mixing with the other surfers gives our groups positive aspirations – they want to become really good surfers. Surfers are definitely positive role models.”
Surfers, positive role models? Well, yes, that’s what I’ve always thought. But let’s hope the word spreads, not just to the disadvantaged but to surfers as well, ingénue or expert. Sometimes we take what surfing gives us for granted. And if other parts of the country jump on the bandwagon set rolling by Trelya and the Positive Futures project in Penzance, so much the better. Being stoked should not be for a lucky few.
See www.drugs.gov.uk/young-people/positive-futures and www.trelya.com for more information
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