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.
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