Riding the Wave of Inclusion: Our New Partnership with Surfing England
We’re incredibly proud to announce a new partnership between the FatFace Foundation and Surfing England, supported through our Team Risers Project Fund. This partnership reflects our shared commitment to inclusion, representation and removing barriers to sport. Through Team Risers, we are investing £11,000 to help Surfing England grow opportunities for underrepresented communities within surfing – supporting both the Bristol Para Surf Club and the Women & Girls in Surfing programme.
We’re excited to see the impact this partnership will create and are proud to support Surfing England in making the line-up a more inclusive place for everyone.
Our funding will help establish the Bristol Para Surf Club as a vital new hub for the para surfing community in the South-West. People with disabilities are twice as likely to be inactive, despite the vast majority wanting to be more active but can face barriers. Surfing has the power to transform confidence, wellbeing and freedom of movement, yet regular opportunities remain limited. This project will focus on building strong foundations for a sustainable club, training coaches and volunteers, and delivering monthly accessible surf sessions at The Wave, alongside meaningful community-building activity out of the water.
This is such an exciting opportunity to continue to develop para surfing across England. The formation of the Bristol Para Surf Club will give surfers with disabilities the chance to surf regularly, affordably and to connect with other surfers. With the support of the FatFace Foundation we will be enable more surfers with disabilities to access the water with experienced coaches and volunteers.
Alongside this, we’re delighted to support Surfing England’s Women & Girls in Coaching series, which addresses the significant drop-off of girls in sport during their teenage years. By investing in female leadership at grassroots level, the programme will qualify and support new women coaches, equipping them to return to their local clubs and deliver sessions that inspire the next generation. Over the course of a year, this initiative will enable more visible female role models, more coaching sessions, and hundreds of girls to stay engaged, active and confident in surfing.
We’re absolutely delighted to have the support of the FatFace Foundation to run our Women & Girls in Coaching series. The new coaches we qualify will be empowered to return to their clubs and surf communities ready to run new coaching sessions, passing on their knowledge and skills, giving female surfers of all ages inspirational role models to surf and train with. We’ll use the Women & Girls in Coaching series to raise the profile of female surf coaches across the country and contribute to making the line-up a more inclusive place for all.