This year thanks to our good friends and generous sponsors at Global Surf Industries the Surfing Mums committee dispersed the funds for our inaugral WABE grants. The two stand out grant applications came from the Secret Harbour and Sydney Northern Beaches Surfing Mums groups. We caught up with the group coordinators to hear what they have planned with the funds.
Laura Huerta is the Secret Harbour group coordinator. The Secret Harbour group has only been up and running since Novemeber but already has about 34 paid members, 10 of whom are regular frothers. According to Laura around 90% of the group are novice surfers. Laura applied for the WABE grant to fund a group lesson, "I thought it will give some more confidence to the Mums to come more often to the sessions".
Eight members took part in the group lesson, unfortunately Laura herself couldn't join in as she was recovering from knee surgery but she was there on the beach to cheer everyone on and most importantly gets some shots.
According to Laura "what I really love about this group is that it smashes the cliche that all surfers needs to be good. Lots of mums who want to join told me they are shy as they never surfed or only beginners but I said "who cares?!" we just want to have fun, time for yourself as a mum is so precious, just go out do whatever you want and comes ou refreshed that's it!! One if the lady who helps me coordinate say its a group interested in "whitewash in summer" which pretty much said it all ". We could not have put it better than Laura has, Secret Harbour is embodying the Surfing Mums and GSI ethos of "life is better when you surf".
Catherine Anne Craig coordinates both the Manly and Dee Why groups on Sydney's Norther Beaches. Her vision for the WABE grant was to help fund a Surfing Mums open day with free face painting. Catherine told us she wanted "potential members and those who have joined but not yet attended to come to the open day and get a feel for how it works". The SM committee thought this was a fabulous way to showcase what Surfing Mums is all about. The grant will also help subsidise video coaching for existing members. Catherine plans for the group to "meet on a weekend so we can coordinate as many as possible, and improve our surfing." We look forward to watching the video evidence of Catherine and her crew shredding!
The Surfing Mums committee wants to thank everyone who applied. We hope that we will be able to offer the WABE grants on an annual basis so that groups have the opportunity to try new and innovative ways to share the surfing mums stoke with our members and the wider community.
