Ground Swell

Check out our footage from a 2007 trip to Lanzarote. Edited at a recent video editing course in Plymouth, in partnership with Chew TV.

The day starts Saturday 17th oct at 10.00am and goes on till 6 pm at the Errant base. If you can’t make this one don’t stress, we have more planned!
You need to be under 25 and give Pete a call on 07968 892829, we only have 12 places so be damn quick!

You will get to use our latest equipment and software including access to the I Macs computer suite.

You will learn how to plan, shoot, edit and produce photo’s and videos for online content.

With the help of Josh Hughes and other professional surfers, you will learn what it takes to cut the perfect movie.

Ben Jones one of our Ground Swell team, and professional surf photographer will give you the chance to shoot from the water, a chance that is very rare within this industry.

As with all Ground Swell events this is free! But you do have to be quick to get involved. Extra cost may be incurred if you want your photos printed, and don’t forget with the help of our friends at The Print Enviroment we can have then printed on ANYTHING!

This Saturday 17th October, Ground Swell will be putting on a one day course for free to teach you Ground Swell members how to shoot the perfect surf photo. Carve surf magazine photographer Ben Jones will be on hand to show you what buttons to press and when!

This is a free event, but please do drop us a line on our Facebook wall to let us know you wish to be a part of it. You never know, you could be the next Tim Mckenna!

You will need to meet at 10am at the Errant Surf Holidays and Ground Swell base at Trebarwith Hotel.

A healthy spot of drizzle didn’t dampen the spirits as the first ever group of Cross Step and Xtra-Vert graduates took part in a showcase ceremony on the afternoon of Tuesday 22nd September at Trebarwith Hotel in Newquay. The celebratory event was the culmination of the two innovative skills based schemes, which have been specially designed by the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) for young people who are not in education, employment or training with the assistance of entry to employment and the European Social Fund.

Based on the success of other similar vocational schemes such as Fifteen Cornwall, Xtra-Vert and Cross Step are fresh new projects aimed at giving young Cornish people a new and accessible way to improve themselves and help get them into jobs, courses or apprenticeships.

The Xtra-Vert crew got a chance to show off some skateboard and BMX tricks on the impressive ramp that they have been constructing over the last four months as part of their intensive carpentry training and they also each received £100 of power tools for successful completion of the course. The Cross Step graduates received their brand new national qualifications in surf coaching and lifeguarding and after the ceremony demonstrated their new skills by taking guests for a free surf lesson on Great Western Beach.

Jodi Redgrove of the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) worked closely with Chris Thomson, Managing Director of Errant Surf Holidays and Cornwall Business Awards’ Young Business Person of the Year 2009, to set up Cross Step and with Will Woolnough, a carpenter and skater based in Newquay, to set up the Xtra-Vert scheme.

Xtra-Vert is based in St Day and of the nine young people from across Cornwall who started the course all nine successfully came through to complete it. Over the four months Will taught them a range of carpentry skills, including furniture construction and stud walling, so that they could also work on the construction of the skate ramp, which consists of a 4ft mini ramp and half pipe with a bowl and two 6ft extension turrets. The structure is specially designed to be dismantled into modules and can be
transported to different venues and events. It can now be hired out and the team has already been commissioned to build a new, bigger ramp that will be taken to festivals next summer.

Before the Xtra-Vert scheme all of the participants were out of work or education. Due to the success of the initial skate ramp project four of the Xtra-Verts, Jack Latham Byrne aged 21 from Watergate, Matt Duff aged 21 from Grampound Road, Luke West aged 17 from St Austell and James Follett aged 19 from Newquay, are now able to apply for full-time jobs with RIO to stay on and build the festival skate ramps and other commissions that have started coming through to Xtra-Vert. James Penfold, aged 20 from Wadebridge, has gained enough skills and qualifications to be taken on as an apprentice for a two year term with an external company. Charlie Banfield aged 16, Luke Keogh aged 17, both from Truro, Jack Gardener aged 21 from Bodmin and Herb aged 16 from St Agnes are all reentering education.

Chris and his team at Errant have spent the last three months putting Cross Step students Thomas Jarman aged 24, Naomi Jane Webb aged 23, both from Falmouth and Mitch Andrew Corbett aged 22 from Newquay, through a specially designed training programme. They have graduated with a NARS Beach Lifeguard Award and a British Surfing Association (BSA) Award, which will allow them to work anywhere in the world as surf instructors and lifeguards. Naomi has gone on to secure a position at Falmouth Surf School and Thomas is keen to get into surf coaching and lifeguarding abroad. Mitch meanwhile is going on to be an ambassador for RIO, helping to spread the word about the organisation. In return RIO has agreed to sponsor him in surf contests over the next year.

The action packed afternoon gave businesses, youth workers, other young people, employment agencies, policy makers and funders from across the South West the opportunity to see what the innovative Cross Step and Xtra-Vert schemes are all about and to talk to the young people directly about their experiences.

Xtra-Vert James Follett was out of work for six months previous to joining the scheme and says, “I heard about the project from my Aunty who works for a youth club. The course has been immense, I didn’t think this sort of stuff existed. It has made me more organised, more confident and obviously I have learnt valuable carpentry skills that I can use to get employment. I am really hoping that I can work for RIO and carry on at Xtra-Vert.”

Luke West adds, “I took on the course because skating is my life and I love working with wood and getting the chance to be creative with it. The fact that Xtra-Vert combines both is fantastic, it’s opened up so many doors.’

Mitch Corbett says of the Cross Step scheme, “I am really stoked to be going on to be an ambassador for RIO as they do such great work with young people. Because of Cross Step I now have qualifications that can help me get a job and compete in surf competitions all over the world. It’s a real bonus to have proper qualifications in something I enjoy doing.”

Jodi Redgrove, founder and Project Manager of the schemes says, “It was a really great afternoon and it was fantastic to see the Xtra-Vert crew and the Cross Step graduates showing off their new skills and work to so many interested and influential people. They have every right to be extremely proud of their achievements and we are really pleased to see them taking their new found skills onto other projects, further training, apprenticeships and employment. We’ve had such good outcomes from these schemes because we’ve been able to tap into something that is not only relevant and exciting for young people but is also sustainable and useful.”

For more information about Cross Step and Xtra-Vert please visit www.xtra-vert.com or email jodi.redgrove@realideas.org.

Check out the offical Ground Swell Facebook page right here you can upload photos, stay in touch with other members, well you know what we are talking about as you’ve probably been using Facebook for ages now!

Hey folks. I’m looking for people who are interested in contributing to the ongoing success of A1Surf.com. We’re a big website, but only a small team working on it (despite being part of a large new media company). I’m therefore looking for people to help in the following areas:

* Design promotional online adverts (banners, buttons etc)

* Write articles, news, guides etc

* Upload content to our site and help promote it online

There is no money available for payment unfortunately, but what we can offer is the opportunity to be able to have some of your work on the UK’s leading surf website – a great thing for your CVs -plus you’ll get references if required. And I’m sure we can sort you out with some freebies too )

If you have any skills in the above areas then please email david@a1surf.com, outlining what areas you are interested in.

…After recently passing her Cross Step course in Newquay she has gone onto work with the Falmouth Surf School in Cornwall.

Want to make your mark?

Want to see your designs on surfboards across the county?

Want to show people what learning to be a surf lifeguard or surf instructor is all about?

Then step up and get involved in Cross Step Blanks.

Cross Step, the lifeguard and surf instruction programme from The Real Ideas Organisation, is looking for a brand new sticker to plaster on the boards of our Cross Steppers and we want you to design it.

The rules are simple. You need to use the Cross Step template or ‘blank’ to design your sticker and it has to include the supplied Cross Step initials somehow. Apart from that, anything goes.

So long as it gets across what Cross Step is all about and the initials are in there you can do whatever you want – redrawing, illustrating, adding to or changing in any way you like using any colours, materials, styles and methods you choose.

The winning design will be made into professional stickers and distributed around the county and the winner will receive a batch of stickers to impress their friends and a goody bag too.

To enter, e-mail chris@errantsurf.com for a copy of the blank and get designing.

Send your final design as a jpeg, pdf or eps to marc.chadburn@realideas.org or post a print out to:

Cross Step, The Real Ideas Organisation, 21b Pydar Street, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2AY

along with your email address and phone number by the 14^th September to be in with a chance of winning.

For inspiration, news, photos and more information about Cross Step, check out our blog [blog address?] or www.realideas.org/real/ideas/crossstep

Good Luck!

Well done to Naomi and Mitch who have just passed the Beach Lifeguard award element of the cross-step award, it is a killer course that will set them up for a career in surf coaching or beach lifeguarding. The Nars beach lifeguard award was held in Newquay, the surf was good, which made the ocean rescues that little bit more challenging.

On the 22nd September 2009 we will launch the new Cross Steppers at the Errant Surf School base in Newquay, come join us and check out some of the other projects being run at the moment.

Now into its third week, three of the students share with us the ups and downs they have had on the course. Naomi explains “The course is wicked, I am learning new skills ever week. It is very hard and challenging but I am getting a buzz out of it,a nd am constantly improving my physical fitness and surfing level, not too mention my coaching and communication skills.”

Josh Wallis from Penzance goes on “The course so far is going great for me. I am really enjoying the surf coaching side of things. Since the group is nice and small I am finding it easy to pick up all the information I need, because a lot of the time it is almost private tuition. I would recommend this course to anyone who loves the sea. The instructors are really laid back and easy to geta long with. The course is held in a great location literally 30 seconds from town, and the beach.”

Tom Jarman is next to add his comments on how the course is going for him “I am getting to train in a industry that I would love to have a job in soon. I can’t imagine a more constructive way to spend six weeks in the summer! Travel costs are paid for, which really helps me get to Newquay to do the course.”