Bay Harbour: February 14, 2024

• Watch the video on
Starnews.co.nz
You’re invited to our
NEWS 7 Wednesday February 14 2024 Bay Harbour News
CRUISE ALASKA &
TOURING USA/CANADA
EVENING
SURF’S UP: Connor Duncan-Caley, 14, was diagnosed with a
medulloblastoma brain tumour in 2017 and still struggles to walk and talk,
but relished the opportunity to learn how to surf on Sunday with the help of
volunteers from the Sumner Longboarders club. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
SURFable sessions
an annual highlight
• By Geoff Sloan
CONNOR DUNCAN-CALEY, 14, hit
the water on Sunday with members of the
Sumner Longboarders club for a special
lesson.
They were taking part in the SURFable
sessions at Christchurch’s Scarborough
Beach to help teach 48 disabled swimmers
to surf the waves.
Despite wet and cold weather, the
novice surfers relished the opportunity.
They quickly got to grips with the new
skills with their tutors, while working
around their disabilities, which ranged
from blindness to Down syndrome and
cerebral palsy.
Event co-ordinator Pete Mannix said
the annual SURFable sessions wouldn’t
happen without help from an army of
volunteers who give up their day to make
it a special event for the surfers and their
families.
“It’s probably the one opportunity a year
that some of these guys get the opportunity
to get into the surf experience getting
onto a surfboard.
“Whether it’s standing up, sitting down,
lying down, doesn’t really matter.”
The Sumner Longboarders club is
celebrating 10 years of running the free
surfing lessons.
Over that time, the members introduced
around 400 disabled surfers to the sport.
“(There’s) a lot involved in the setting
up and the planning and the organisation
and it all comes together and then the first
session of the day, we’re standing up here
on the shore and you hear the hoots in the
hollers and the laughter and the yahoos
and you think: ‘Oh, all right, we’re under
way’.
“And everyone gets a big grin on their
face and that lasts all day.”
Mannix says the event is fully booked
each year, with more interest than the
50-member club can accommodate.
“We’re doing a big review after this
to look at sustainability and how do we
expand it.
“It’s a bit tricky in Christchurch, the surf
season. The warm weather and the warm
water doesn’t last very long, so that’s why
we try and put all the effort into the one
big event.”
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