What a year it has been at The Wave Project Scotland! Our busiest ever!
We welcomed 180 young people to our 6-week Surf Therapy courses across our three projects – Dunbar, St Andrews and Lost Shore.
Our surfers are referred to us for a variety of reasons, and our volunteer mentors who work 1:1 with the surfers, allow the specific needs of each surfer to be catered for. The course is a safe space where they can improve their confidence, resilience and self esteem. Our surfers make friends and are physically active. They engage with new people and meet positive role models. They surf. They have fun. Surfing involves a LOT of falling off, but the only thing to do is shake off the wipeout, get back on the board, and try again. This is a lesson they can take from the waves into their everyday lives.
We also ran 150 Surf Club sessions, a space where our surfers can continue to attend sessions on a drop in basis after their Surf Therapy course. These Surf Club sessions allow us to have a long lasting positive impact on the lives of our surfers. We love seeing them grow up through the years. Hearing how their first day at high school went, their plans for the summer, what sports clubs they have joined, new friends they’ve made, what challenges they are currently facing. Even if surfing isn’t their thing, Surf Club is a space that is always there for them where they can come and connect with their community, spend time in the water and have fun. We couldn’t be more proud of them. We try to teach them positive lessons for life, about not giving up, supporting each other, treating each other with kindness. Though, we often find ourselves learning just as much ourselves.
Take Lewis, who last year transitioned from Surfer to Volunteer, and has been an awesome member of the volunteer team in 2025– showing patience and kindness with all the young people he supports. He has gone on to win two awards for his hard work and dedication. Lewis reminds us that if you want to have a positive change on the world, you just need to start small, and it will only grow and grow. Thanks for giving us hope Lewis.
This year, our volunteers gave up over 4,200 hours of their time to support our surfers. When you see smiles on the faces of the surfers in the water, volunteers by their sides and families on the shoreline – it really shows the power of people helping people. The Wave Project community really is the best of the best in our society.
A surfer parent told us:
“Thank you to the whole team for their patience, the world could learn a lot from how the Wave Project treats young people.”
It is these volunteers who are the key to the positive impact we have. We are so grateful to each and every one of them.
Those who know Wave Project Scotland will know the legend that is Steve. An integral part of our volunteer team, and the secret to the success of all three project. He came up to us in Spring and told us he’d had an idea – “if I have volunteered at three The Wave Project locations, why don’t I try and volunteer at all of them?” Steve is one of those people that show their kindness (and sometimes madness) through their actions. And If anyone was going to do it, it would be Steve. Though we have come to expect amazing things from Steve, even we were surprised when he added on, “Oh, and I going to cycle between them by the way”. Fast forward to August, 1064 miles, 17 wave project sessions, 17 locations, one bike, one crash, one storm and hundreds of high fives later, Steve cycled into the West Sands in St Andrews to complete his epic journey.
As we move into 2026, we want to say a heart felt thank you to every single person who has been involved with The Wave Project year. If you donated a raffle prize or volunteered in the water, referred a young person or ran a marathon. We really believe in this work that we do, and we are looking forward to keeping it going into 2026!