How NE Surf Turned SEND Sessions into a Short Film
Running SEND surfing sessions from their location in Bamburgh, NE Surf recently won at the inaugural North Sea Surf Film Festival. We find out more from co-founder Emily Grimes
‘Where we’re based in Northumberland is a super-touristy destination. There’s such great surfing here, but we found when we started that there weren’t that many locals involved, and there weren’t regular accessible kids clubs – it was all geared towards the holiday market,’ Emily explains.
Off the back of this, NE Surf began to run sessions for local kids separate from the tourist sessions. This included weekly SEND sessions, where one instructor is paired with a maximum of two surfers for highly involved and personal support. This led to a small community of particularly tight knit young surfers and volunteers. When Emily saw the call out for the first North Sea Surf Film Festival, she knew they had a special story to tell.
‘It’s just epic, we love that side of what we do. If you don’t know that much about surfing, this might not make much sense, but a lot of surf communities are so influenced by progressive surfboarding and shortboarding,’ she says, describing a style of surfing which emphasises high-speed, acrobatic manoeuvres. ‘These kids up here just do really functional surfing and it’s so fun. It feels like a really old-school surf community.’
Emily knew there was space for her little community at the film festival, and they had the star power to back it up. ‘The first thing that came to our mind was to make a film of the kids who come to the SEND sessions. Alfie, Elliott and Elliott’s brothers have been coming since the start. Alfie is so good in front of the camera. He properly thrives on surfing and he’s so keen for any chance to talk about it,’ Emily explains.
Elliott also features, and the bond he has with his brothers is touching. ‘We just think it’s a really cool story of how he and his brothers started surfing together. His brothers don’t have any additional support needs but we taught them in the same lessons initially.’ Ethan, one of Elliott’s brothers, has volunteered in every one of Elliott’s sessions. ‘There’s not been a single session that Elliott has done that Ethan hasn’t volunteered in,’ says Emily.
‘Alfie is so good in front of the camera. He properly thrives on surfing and he’s so keen for any chance to talk about it’
Taking footage for their socials was a great stepping stone towards putting a film together, and Emily sought more opportunities where their local community could get involved. ‘My partner [Chris] does water photography and videography and he’s always done that for our surf school,’ she explains. ‘There’s another lad called Will who wasn’t in the film, but he comes to our after school clubs and is doing photography for his GCSEs. We thought it would be really cool for him to get involved, so we actually set him up with Chris’s camera. It was his first time doing anything like that, but he filmed all the land stuff.’
Filming took place in winter when the demand wasn’t as high for lessons, and when it was time to submit their piece to the film festival, another member of the community helped with the artwork. ‘It just so happens that one of our pals [Candice Tripp] who surfs with us in our adult surf clubs is an amazing artist. So I messaged her the week before it was due saying “I’ve tried to do a title for this thing and it’s terrible. Can you conjure something up like a surfing satsuma?”’
Emily believes this helped set them apart at the screening, which took place in Tynemouth earlier this year. Around 20 films were shown and then voted on by the audience – Satsuma was named the Cold Gold winner for their winter project. ‘They announced it and we weren’t expecting it at all. Alfie was sitting in front of me next to his mum and all I can picture is Alfie’s face when he turned around.’
Emily hopes the win will help to raise awareness of the benefits of surfing, and how accessible the sport can be. ‘Surfing is such a powerful activity. On the surface it can seem pretty trivial, but when you see firsthand what it can do for people’s confidence and happiness, it can have such a positive impact,’ she explains. The SEND group (now renamed the Satsuma Surf Club), has also benefited from the project. ‘From the lads it’s so evident what it does for them and how much they love it. We’ve seen a big increase in the number of people coming to the SEND sessions, and it’s a weekly thing for them now.’
