The town of Dunsborough is home to a lucky group of surfing mums. A veritable playground for surfers where a fun wave can be found in nearly any condition. We speak to Dunsborough coordinator, Shae Sheridan about life and surfing in this beautiful corner of south west W.A. 

When was the Dunsborough group established? How long have you been coordinating the group?
Dunsborough Surfing Mums group was established in 2013 by Katherine and in 2016 Rio took over as coordinator. Rio has done an amazing job running our group over the years and I have just taken over a few months ago. I have been a member for almost 4 yrs and I am so grateful to be part of such a fantastic organisation.

Roughly how many members do you have?
We have lots of followers, a few members from other regions (Perth and Albany) and nice regular group of about 6.

Tell me a bit about your group members, are they all long time surfers or learners? Is there a wide age with the kids?
All the Mums in our group are amazing surfers. We have shortboard, longboard and bodyboard riders. The main age of kids at the moment is 3yr olds but we also have school holiday crew with some bigger kids.

Which beach do you usually meet at? What is the wave like there?
We usually meet at Yallingup but can surf anywhere from Gracetown up to Bunker Bay depending on the conditions. We are very lucky with the shape of the headland there is nearly always waves somewhere whether the swell is 1m or 6m.

Does it get chilly there over winter? If so does the group numbers dwindle or are you all hardcore frothers?
It does get cold here in winter but the water temperature doesn’t change much. We surf all year round and some of my favourite waves you can only surf on big winter swells as you need it to wrap around into the bay.

Is it as sharky over there as everyone says it is?
Yes it can be sharky but in all my 25 years of surfing the only place I have ever seen a shark in the water was Trigg Point in Perth.

Any other fun things you lot get up to together?
In the past Rio has organised little getaways to Margaret River and professional watermanship training. Recently a local longboard club organised a Gals on Mals day and a few of our Mums attended that.

What impact has being a member of surfing mums had on you and/or your group members (any heart-warming stories you can share?)
My daughter is almost 18 and Surfing Mums wasn’t around back then. So I never really surfed much unless I could find someone to watch her. Over the years I had various friends join Surfing Mums in Perth and thought it was a great concept. So 14 years later when I had my next baby I signed up when he was just 10 weeks old. Now with 2 small kids I would never have the opportunity to surf weekly without Surfing Mums.

Here is your chance to boost the tourism economy for Dunsborough – top 3 reasons a surfing mum should go visit Dunsborough.

* Beautiful beaches, too many to even try and list.

* Amazing restaurants, wineries, breweries and distilleries.

* Did I mention our amazing surf and we now have direct flights to Melbourne (via Busselton)

Any final thoughts / pearls of wisdom you would like to share?

Any newbies out there who are unsure about joining up - Just do it! Don’t stress about your baby/child crying (they all do at some point), missed naps or everything else that needs to be done home. Get out there and have 30 mins of fun for you!