'Sundays is surf club day' - veterans enjoy free surf sessions in South Shields - video Dailymotion

Shields Gazette

A surf club for veterans runs every Sunday at Sandhaven Beach in South Tyneside. Thanks to an array of donors, most recently the Veterans Foundation', and with the help of South Shields Surf School, it's completely free.

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00:00I mean, if you ask my lass, Sundays are kind of like scratched out of the diary for things to do.

00:07Mostly, it's 99% Sundays is like surf club day.

00:11We're at South Shield Surf School on Sandhaven Beach in South Shields.

00:16We are a sea company. We're a group of veterans who come and surf every Sunday.

00:23I'm down here most weekends unless I've got something on that I can't get out of.

00:26This is my priority, but yeah, most weekends I'm down here.

00:29So mostly it's people who haven't surfed at all.

00:33It's rare that people have done it before, to be fair.

00:36So it's a new thing, a new skill to try and learn, a new challenge for people.

00:40When I say it took to it, I'm not any good at it.

00:43But yeah, I thoroughly enjoy it.

00:47And yeah, it's quite addictive, if I'm honest with you.

00:50So it's all free for veterans. They don't have to pay anything.

00:54You can come down, use the gear, no charge at all.

00:57Thanks to, we've had several donors, actually.

01:00It started off with Seascapes and National Trust.

01:05And now we are funded by the Veterans Foundation, who've been really supportive.

01:10And we're really grateful to have their support.

01:12I was introduced to it through a charity called Sporting Force from Darlington at the time.

01:19And there was about six of us came down and most of us stuck to it.

01:23Everyone's still within the group.

01:25But, you know, I come down quite regularly now.

01:28Some of us come down occasionally.

01:29We've got upwards of 60 people enrolled now.

01:34We don't obviously get that number every week.

01:36But, you know, it's just growing and growing, which is really good.

01:39My background is from a military side.

01:42I was a reservist with the Royal Yorkshire Regiment for 30 years.

01:46I'm now the chairman of the Middlesbrough Branch of the Yorkshire Regiment Association.

01:52And he's probably been here probably the longest at the guys who used to surf back in when he was in the Navy.

02:01And he wasn't able to do that for a few years.

02:04I was based mainly down in Cornwall.

02:06And I used to surf when I was down there.

02:07And then when I came back out of the Navy, I came up and I did surf when I came out.

02:13But it gradually petered off as winter's got colder compared to Cornwall.

02:19I got a bit less eager to get in on the cold water.

02:24But then I had a couple of health problems.

02:28I had a stroke and I also had a heart problem.

02:30So that really kind of knocked the problem of going in by myself surfing.

02:37So I hadn't surfed for a good few years when Matt came.

02:41Because one of my fears was that I was going to go in the water and something was going to happen to us.

02:46So when Matt came along and said that he was going to have a surf club going for veterans,

02:51I thought I'll go along and see what it's like.

02:52And I've been here ever since, yeah.

02:54I was in the Parachute Regiment for nine years.

02:57And yeah, I did some private security and stuff after that as well.

03:01And also in the reserves now as well.

03:03I rejoined not long ago.

03:04I had always wanted to surf when I was younger, but never got around to it.

03:09So when we moved here around 2018, I came to Nick's surf school and did a public lesson,

03:15a group lesson, got hooked straight away and then spent the next two or three years just going about myself.

03:23You know, got some gear and, you know, tried to get a handle of surfing, which is easier said than done.

03:29And then in 2021, I approached Nick, knowing that he does loads of community projects down here with the surf school

03:37and mentioned that it might be a good thing to do a veterans surfing project, as I got a lot out of it myself.

03:45And I wanted to share that with other people who've been in the forces as well, so they could benefit from it.

03:51Apart from the actual, like, part of surfing, I mean, there's a good community.

03:58So there's a great, like, amount of band between the three services.

04:02Everybody digs each other.

04:03We're all sort of mates.

04:04We come down, you know, have a bit of a surf.

04:06As you can see, we've got the beach fire on, get some brews, a bit of food.

04:11Again, it's all funded by the Veterans Foundation.

04:13We've got funding for that.

04:15So it's really nice to see the guys getting a lot out of it.

04:20The difference as well, before and after, you know, sometimes, you know, you come down and you're not in the best mood or whatever.

04:27You have a surf, have a chat with the guys.

04:29It's really, you know, exposure to nature and to all the benefits of the water.

04:36It's noticeable, it's unrappable.

'Sundays is surf club day' - veterans enjoy free surf sessions in South Shields

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