Core Surf Program
THE SURFER KIDS CORE SURF PROGRAM offers surf training to marginalized children from the poorest communities in Mossel Bay. The program runs 5 days a week and there is no charge. The only requirement for membership is a commitment to the program.
The Core Surfing Program is based at Diaz Beach. It is active every week, from Tuesday to Saturday, all year round and employs coaches recruited from within the same townships as the children.
Boys under 8 and girls under 10 are recruited into the program with the help of a community coordinator, in cooperation with TM Ndanda and Ridgeview Primary Schools, located amidst the townships of Isazane, Isinyonka and Fairview, known collectively as JCC Camp or Joe Slovo Village.
According to statistics from the 2011 Census (which can be viewed here and here) the poorest of these areas consist of less than 25% formal dwellings. Less than 2% of people over the age of 20 have any higher education, less than 5% of households have access to piped water and less than 30% of households have flush toilets inside.
We encourage all the children who join our program to return as often as possible, provided that they show commitment toward learning to surf. Our long term goal is to foster empowerment among these youths and we believe that the best way of doing that is by teaching commitment .
To be empowered is to create a life of opportunity and success despite one’s circumstances. In order to achieve empowerment commitment is essential. With commitment any person can rise above their circumstance and create opportunities.
Surfing is inherently difficult to learn. To learn surfing a whole range of progressively more difficult skills are required and as such it requires true commitment. No child will learn to surf without also having learnt commitment.
In fact, learning to surf at an advanced level is comparable to studying for a degree. It will not happen by itself and it will not happen overnight. Most likely not even within a year. Like earning a degree, learning to surf requires several years of commitment, a range of skills and diverse knowledge.
The Surfer Kids teach this powerful understanding early in life: No matter who you are, through sustained commitment comes success.
And we can prove that it works. Our Core Surf Program has been tracking the children's attendance since 2017 and through this data collection we've seen a clear trend emerge. The longer a child stays in our program the more likely they are to attend the program and achieve a higher attendance percentage. While those children with the highest number of accumulated days in the program achieve an average attendance of 90% and higher.
Our program works. After more than ten years of being operational, we know: our program teaches commitment. From there it's a simple observation that no person has ever achieved success without first being committed to their cause.