A Hardcore Lesson on Surfing

See the world through a different lens with The Comma, our monthly editorial takeover featuring social and environmental perspectives from inspiring filmmakers, journalists, experts and activists from our community.

This month we hear from Sally McGee , the storyteller behind our latest WaterBear release, Out of Step. Sally is a surfer, a coach, and co-founder of the all-female surfing school Yonder on the East Coast of England. With her partner Tom and their 6-year-old son, they chose a life off the beaten track to fully dedicate themselves to surfing and nature.

Growing up as a teenager in Northern England in the late 90s, lad, club, drinking and football culture were prominent, and they still are. While commercialisation was doing its best to absorb every alternative music and lifestyle, I was naturally drawn towards a culture that commercialisation couldn’t seem to touch. That’s when I found Hardcore: an offshoot of punk music.

My town was a hub for music, we gathered in basements, front rooms, the function rooms of pubs and squats. We put on DIY shows, that attracted kids from all over the UK and we connected with other Hardcore fans across Europe and beyond. This married well with my politics, activism and passion for social justice throughout my Uni years and early work life as a project worker for the Refugee Council and then onto the British Red Cross.

At the same time, I also got into surfing. It came at a time when my work at the Refugee Council was incredibly intense and the headspace that surfing offered was crucial to my well-being. Something about it gripped me, the vehicle to nature that it offered and the focus it demanded and, over time, I let that grip take hold;

Meanwhile, I met my partner Tom, a Hardcore kid who later also fell in love with surfing. We’ve been together now for eighteen years. For seventeen of them, surfing has been close to the centre of our lives. We’ve committed a lot to it and it’s given us more back than we could ever imagine: places, people, knowledge, experiences, mindset.

For me, the experience of surfing is deeply spiritual; constantly challenging, humbling; all-consuming and it’s allowed me a deeper understanding of the ocean, its quirks and habits.

On the flipside to properly ‘give’ yourself to surfing it takes commitment, heartache, frustration and conviction to keep going, it’s hard to just dabble (especially in the cold fickle seas where we live) so perhaps surfing would have ruined my life if it wasn’t my life. Our life.

We care deeply about the culture of surfing and have never felt represented by legacy brands or images of surfing that most have in mind when they think of it. We care for surfing's past and its future. For us we have always seen surfing as an alternative pursuit, counter-cultural, although its popularity grows those core surfers are still not considered the mainstream, at least where we live.

This was a key reason why we felt the need to establish Yonder.

It can be a reflection of our vision of what we see and want to see. The concept behind the film Out of Step, for example, was just one way to show others who might find themselves in a similar place to ourselves not how to do things but an example of how you can carry on pursuing the things you love within your means. It’s not like others have not tread this path before us, it’s more that we pursue it based on what we want and believe, rather than external expectations of what that should look like.

Our son is six now and although he ‘surfs’; he is yet to paddle for and catch his first wave. Before he is old enough to be a ‘surfer’ he has learnt so many lessons from being around surfing. From travel and exposure to cultures to being there for the highs and lows, to seeing his parents commit time to something they are passionate about. Learning about the earth’s weather systems, seeing water mistreatment first-hand, and studying ecosystems from the shore. Surfing has made him an activist. It’s given him a love for nature and a duty to try and protect it.

One where DIY pushes our culture forwards; where the grassroots take hold and steer our culture in a direction that reflects the connection we all have with it. Where people are passionate, where faceless global surf corporations with no regard for our culture or our planet don’t reign supreme, but creativity and compassion do. Where we support our independent shapers; our grassroots brands, put money through the tills of the shops that support our scenes, where we are open to the ideas of technologies like Yulex and Polyola making our industry a cleaner place. Where women are celebrated for their movement in the water and commitment to a lifestyle rather than their value as a sexualised object. Where we step out of the path most travelled and forge our own.

Impact Spotlight

Yonder Surf Academy is the CIC arm of Yonder, an all-women’s surf school in North Tyneside. Funded by Sally and Tom, their mission is to inspire and support marginalised women and girls to build confidence, self-esteem and positive mental health, who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

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Watch Out of Step

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