Stephen Spencer on biking 1,000 miles for The Wave Project: 'these volunteers make magic happen'
The surf therapy offered by the Wave Project charity helps young people going through tough times – and the results can be life-changing, writes Roger Cox
Earlier this summer, 60-year-old Stephen Spencer from Montrave in Fife set out to complete a 1,034 mile cycle around the UK to raise funds for surf therapy charity The Wave Project. It’s a journey that includes some 46,000 feet of ascent, so when he calls me from the side of a road in Devon mid-way through a full day’s cycling, and his mobile phone reception is so bad he’s barely audible, I naturally suggest that he should try getting to higher ground. Because of course, that’s exactly what he’ll be in the mood for: yet more climbing.
Impressively, once he’s trudged up a nearby hill in order to make himself heard, he’s still in good spirits. “Stephen, how are you?” I ask.
“I would’ve been better if I hadn’t just had to climb about 150 feet up this hill!” he laughs. “But 150 feet in the context of 5,000 feet – that’s today's climb – doesn’t really matter.”
I ask him to describe his current location.
“I’m somewhere to the north-east of Plymouth,” he says, “in a very picturesque place full of gorse bushes and what appear to be wild ponies. And I’m 70 miles into today’s cycle with 20 miles to go. I set off from Newquay this morning, and I’m heading to Paignton.”
These locations aren’t picked at random – Spencer’s plan is to visit all 16 of the places around the UK where The Wave Project runs its surf therapy sessions, and, when he gets there, take part in those sessions as a volunteer.
“The aim of the cycle is to do surf therapy sessions along the way,” he says. “So far I’ve done about ten. So it isn’t just the cycle – there’s also two hours of relatively rigorous work in the surf with the kids at every stop. I’ve already had so many amazing times on this trip, just being part of kids having their best day ever, catching the most waves they’ve ever caught, even introducing a few people to surfing for the first time.”
The Wave Project was established at Watergate Bay in Cornwall in 2011 with the aim of improving children’s mental health and wellbeing through surf therapy, and it has since been rolled out across the UK. In Scotland there are now Wave Project hubs at Dunbar and St Andrews and at the Lost Shore surf resort at Ratho.
“Dunbar is where I started out on my surf therapy journey back in 2018,” Spencer says, “and since then we’ve expanded out into St Andrews – that was three or four years ago – and then we started at Lost Shore last year. I coach and volunteer at all of them, but I live nearest to St Andrews.”
Spencer first got involved with The Wave Project after seeing a collection box in the now-defunct Freeze surf and snow shop in Edinburgh. What appealed to him about it?
“I think two things,” he says. “One, I know what surfing does for me in terms of giving me space to just be myself and re-energising me and helping me think things through. And I’d always had an inkling that there was something powerful about it that would make it beneficial to young people who were having a tough time of it. Young people live in a tough world at the moment, they have a lot to deal with.”
The emphasis at the Wave Project is on participation – while the end goal is to introduce young people to the joys of surfing, sometimes, particularly in the early stages, just getting them into the water can feel like a big step. The positive effects of the Wave Project’s programmes have been well-documented, not least by Dr Jamie Marshall of Edinburgh Napier University – the world’s first ever PhD in Surf Therapy.
Spencer’s first experience of volunteering was a memorable one. “The first kid I volunteered with was a young lad called Sean,” he says, “and even just seeing the impact those first two hours in the water had on him was incredible. He has Down’s syndrome, amongst other things, and he was very much wanting to move into independent living. Along with that condition comes a lot of hugginess and happiness, but this was also about giving him ways to cope with that and how to behave around other people, and he did amazingly.”
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After his spell with the Wave Project, Sean did indeed move into independent living. “He sent me a mail a couple of years ago saying ‘I’ve got my own flat!’” remembers Spencer. “He put a lot of work into that – we were just an assist – but it’s nice to have been part of it.”
There are two main aspects to the work the Wave Project does: therapy sessions for those who have been referred by either a GP, CAHMS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) or their school, and then Surf Club, which offers social surf sessions for those who have completed a six-week course of therapy but want to retain their links to the Wave Project and to keep on surfing. “We’ve got about 250 kids in Surf Club and in Scotland each year 200 young people complete a six-week surf therapy course,” says Spencer, “and that’s on a full-time staff of four. The Wave Project provides a Cartier therapy solution at Primark money.
“The real heroes are our volunteer surf mentors who work one-to-one with our surfers. These amazing people give their time and energy at every session to make the magic happen.”
For more on Stephen Spencer’s Wheels, Waves and Stories fundraiser, and to donate, visit www.waveproject.co.uk/wheels-waves-and-stories/
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