Disabled surfers take on the waves
By Rachel Pupazzoni (ABC News)

Updated Fri Jan 7, 2011 2:52pm AEDT

Disabled surfer Bruce Peel on his wheelchair about to head out for a surf (DSAWA)
For many people living with a disability, freedom of movement can be out of reach but thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers, surfing is something they are able to do.

The Disabled Surfers Association, which began in 1987 in New South Wales, is bridging the gap between disabled and able body surfers.

It provides people with a disability the chance to go to the beach, feel the sand and surf the waves.

For some, it's the only time they get to experience what so many of us take for granted.

The West Australian branch president Bruce Peel, who is an amputee himself, says he first got involved with the organisation as a participant five years ago.

"It's one of the best things I've been involved with," he said.

He says it gives people with a disability a sense of freedom.

"Actually getting out onto the sand, which, speaking from experience being in a wheelchair myself, it's a hell of a kick being able to get across the sand in your chair and not having to be pushed along by someone else or carried.

"It just gives you back independence and freedom as well."

DSAWA puts beach matting across the sand which enables participants in wheelchairs to take their own chairs onto the beach.

Participation

Despite having cerebral palsy and being blind in one eye, Stacee Parkinson often takes part as a volunteer as well as participating.

"I wanted to give others a bit more of a go," she said.

"That's why I like being a volunteer because there are people there who have never been able to surf in their life.

"I thought that being a volunteer would be better for me to give them an opportunity to have a bit more of a go than someone a bit more able bodied like myself."

Ms Parkinson, who has been involved with DSAWA for three years, says the organisation gives people opportunities they would never normally have.

"It gives people a chance to come out of their restricted life and gives them a chance to experience water, something they would otherwise not be able to experience," she said.

"Most of these people are with carers 24/7. The DSAWA gives them a beautiful opportunity to actually go out and experience the surf."

Mr Peel says while the point of the organisation is to benefit the participants, the volunteers walk away feeling good too.

"I think the volunteers get more of a kick out of it than some of the participants," she said.

"We've got people down there who might have cerebral palsy and a few other disabilities as well, it's not just one, and they can't communicate but you can see through their eyes the sheer pleasure they're having."

Access

While DSAWA has its own matting for access for people in wheelchairs, there are moves to make beaches more accessible more often to people with a disability.

The government is offering grants to local governments to establish better beach access for people with disabilities at their local beaches.

The Disability Services Commission's acting director general Robyn Massey says some beaches in Perth are using mats and providing beach friendly wheelchairs during summer.

"There's a few particularly along the coast; there's Rockingham, Cottesloe, Cockburn, I know up at Hilary's. It's happening and it's actually available in a few beaches and communities," she said.

Ms Massey has also thrown her support behind DSAWA.

"The beach is so much of the Aussie culture and it's so great that people with a disability can get out there and get to the beach and have fun like everyone else does," she said.

DSAWA, which has now spread throughout Australia and New Zealand, is funded entirely by donations and sponsorship, and offers its surfing days for free.

There are a number of events planned for this summer and for more information you can visit surfershelpingsurfers.com

"SPRING IS IN THE AIR"

Spring is in the air and surf season 07/08 is almost upon us- we have 4 events planned for this season and some great new sponsors on board thanks to Bruce's coercive nature and innate ability to get money out of people! He has been getting around town on his trike and putting the word out there- thanks Bruce.

Our newly appointed Treasurer Dan Eastgate scored DSAWA a spot on Channel 31's 'Wake Up WA' Program a few weeks back and it was with great in trepidation that myself and Bruce went to the studios for a live interview. Bruce was so nervous that he got the sweats but he handled it like a pro! Thanks Dan for organising this for us, it was great promo for DSA and hopefully lots of people saw it and will in turn support DSA and the great work that it does.

Thanks also must go to our committee who work tirelessly to raise money and organise our events. Our committee is currently made up of the following people:

Bruce Peel (aka Loose Bruce)- President
Dan Eastgate- Treasurer
Bek Colston- Secretary
Rocky Jardine- Gear Steward
Ron Dobrich- Man in the Know
Harry Schaeche- Grants Officer

In addition to the above is an army of regular helpers who generously give of their time- we greatly appreciate their effort and enthusiasm.

This surf season is gearing up to be a big one- most of the WA committee is planning to come over to Sydney for the Collaroy Event in February which will give us all an opportunity to get to know crew from other branches. As well as this we are running our second Down-South event at Bunker Bay in Dunsborough and hopefully our own local patron, Taj Burrow, will be able to make it to the event. After the last down-south event there was so much hype in the local community about DSA and we hope this is reflected in the turn out of volunteers and participants on our big day in January!

Anyway, that's all from WA for now- check out our event dates for next season on the DSA website and enjoy the warm months to come!

Over and out…… from Bek & DSAWA Crew

Down South Adventure

Well our first down-south event was an absolute screaming success.... huge turn-outs, warm weather and lot's of great people from the local community all made the day such an awesome experience.

We had 126 volunteers at our first down-south Let's Go Surfing Day- that's huge! and the crew worked their fingers to the bone once again to get everything in order.

A few local big names came down to Bunker Bay to help make the day something really special- Taj Burrows and his Mum Nancy rolled up their sleeves and got in with the crew to help out for the day and Taj agreed to be the face of the WA branch... evoking lot's of hugs from Bruce which I'm sure Taj thoroughly enjoyed! 

Former professional body boarder Joe Jordanoff, Melanie Redman-Carr and Dave Macaulay also came down and helped out on our training day and on the Let's Go Surfing Day.... along with lot's of really passionate local crew. It's so good to live in a community where people love surfing so much that they want to share the experience with everyone else.... we have some really great people in the Busselton- Dunsborough- Yallingup- Margaret River community, load's of very generous, kind and good-hearted people, both young and old, who really see the value in what DSA does and give their time and energy to help deliver this awesome experience to loads of people.... bring on the 07/08 season I say!

lot's of luv to everyone and will be in touch soon with more news, xo from Bek @ DSAWA

Greetings from Beautiful Sunny

  Western Australia

Our "Let's Go Surfing Day" on Saturday 9th December was another brilliant

success with loads of people getting down to Leighton Beach in Perth for our first event for the 06/07 season- we had over 40 very keen participants and 120 wonderful and enthusiastic vollies and carers who generously gave their time and energy to make the day the roaring success it was.

Some special awards were handed out on the day with first time DSA surfer Sebastian Anthony being awarded Wave of the Day- Sebastian really stole some hearts down at the beach with his cheeky little personality.  Helper of the Day went to Billy Mayne who was a team leader on the day- Billy has been with DSAWA since the very first photo shoot for the West Australian Newspaper back in August 2005.  Billy has never missed an event and is always enthusiastically running around like mad, getting things done- Billy is worth his weight in gold!

This is WA's second season and we are cruising along rather nicely now- we

have an excellent gear trailer and all the boards and gear necessary to hold our events independently from other organisations, surf clubs and DSA branches (well, almost)

Our committee is working as hard as ever with "Loose Bruce" Peel at the steering wheel of his trike as our President, myself, Bek Colston, as Secretary (and one of the long suffering only females on the committee) and Harry Schaeche as our ever trusty Treasurer. We also have a stack of support in our committee- Dan Eastgate, who we've affectionately titled our "Director of Internal Affairs"!!! is the man when it comes to getting things organised- he's also particularly good at keeping the peace when things get a bit rowdy at meetings, Ron Dobrich is our vice-pres (his job is to keep Brucey in line- this is a full-time job so we try not to demand too much else from Ron!) and then we have a full compliment of talented sorts who keep things ticking over. Rocky Jardine is our gear-steward, Belinda Devenish is our social person (very important job- she organises all the food and partying... bless your cotton socks  Beez!), Gordy Macleod is our "Gopher"- he can get ANYTHING either half-price or free- just ask him!- he has the absolute gift of the gab! and Gary Jackson is our sometimes PR man and all round good guy!

A special mention also needs to go to Cindy Evans- Cindy has been instrumental in getting a sub-branch of DSAWA started up in our lovely south-west- where this woman gets her energy from no-one knows, but she is amazing! Thanks Cindy- your hard work is appreciated by many.

Down-south events are being held at Quay West Resort Bunker Bay in Dunsborough, just up the road from Margaret River- an amazing venue with a superb beach at it's door step- the resort has generously allowed us to use their premises for a "Train the Helper Day" on Saturday 16th December and a "Let's Go Surfing Day" on Sunday the 14th of January.  There is a very strong surf culture within the community and the locals are embracing disabled surfing with great passion and enthusiasm which is wonderful to see.

Pro-surfer Taj Burrows is expected to be coming along to our January event.  Taj has an important connection with DSA.  In 2000 Taj helped to rescue DSA surfer Grant Boxall when Grant broke his neck surfing Yallingup main break.  This will be the first time the two of them will have surfed together since the accident- we think this will be a pretty special moment for both of them and for those watching.

Check out the website for upcoming dates for events- we have 5 events on this season- it's going to be another big one!  Merry Christmas to all of the DSA family from the crew here in WA and thankyou for making us feel so welcome in our first year!  Take care over the holiday period and see you all in the surf!

xo from Bek and the DSAWA crew

Bek Colston

Disabled Surfers WA

PO Box 2168

CARLISE NORTH  WA   6101

Mobile :  040 891 0554

dsawa.contact@hotmail.com

The final event for the season was held on Saturday the 8^th of April at Leighton Beach- again we had an impressive turn out with many of our volunteers from our December Training Day returning along with participants from the previous 2 events.  We had students from a number of schools across Perth that came along to lend a hand and as has been the case throughout the entire season our sponsors were as generous as ever.

The forming of DSA’s Western Australian chapter has been a wonderful experience for all involved and the journey continues in 2006 as we prepare for the next surf season. Many life long friendships have been formed and many people with disabilities have been provided with the opportunity to get out an experience a bit more of what life is all about- fun and surfing!  A calendar of social events  and “Let’s go Surfing” days is now available- it will be emailed to anyone on our mailing list- to get a copy just send me an email.

The 2006/2007 surf season looks like it is going to be extremely busy... and insanely good fun!  An enthusiatic and energetic bunch of people from our South West (Margaret River Region) have organised for us to take some events down that way- the dates for these have been placed on our calendar also- and as per usual, EVERYONE is welcome to come along.

Details of DSAWA’s events can be seen on the Calendar section of the website.

We would like to sincerely thank our sponsors, our volunteers, our participants and their families and carers for making DSAWA’s first surf season such a memorable and wonderful success. We'd also like to thank all the crew from DSA on the East Coast for helping us out so much in our first year and for making us feel like we're part of the family-  and we look forward to seeing everyone very soon!

Warmest wishes from the DSAWA family, xo

Written by Bek

Well here I go, 1st report. Now that we are one year old we have found it necessary to expand into the South West.  A few months ago with the help of local Cindy Evans, we started canvassing the Southwest around Dunsborough, Margaret River & Yallingup regions.    We chose Bunker Bay as the location of our first event.  With the help of Cindy we managed to secure the use of the function room at 'Quay West Resort' Bunker Bay for our 'Show of Hands' & 'Train the Helper' events.  The 'Show of hands' attracted 60 people keen to know all about DSA. I was a bit nervous doing my first talk, but with the great support of Cindy, Bek and a talk from Grant Boxall, (a surfer who broke his neck in the area) WE had a successful day.  We even put on a small beach demo with the help of committee member Ron, Cindy plus Mike & Kim Shaw and Jools all from Margaret River helped me catch half a dozen or so waves, just a small practice run for the 16th of December.  Looking forward to the guys coming to run the 'Train the Helper' day. Our season is already underway with an event called Celebrating Ability Expo on the 3 of December, followed by 'Lets Go Surfing' on the 9th of December at Leighton Beach, 'Train the Helper' on the 16th of December, 'Lets go Surfing' in the South West on 14th of January '07 and 'Lets go Surfing' at Leighton Beach on the 3rd of February & 17th of March. I also intend on putting Collaroy the 24th of February on my calendar.

Loose Bruce DSAWA