“To feel that bit of action is positive and powerful.”
An interview with surf activist and founder of Wave Wahines Yvette Curtis, who lives in North Devon
“You see so many headlines that are quite overwhelming and you’re fed constant doom and gloom in the news and on your social media feed. It can be quite debilitating in terms of knowing what you can do.
But then to be able to do something that is really simple and easy, it doesn’t take five or ten years of being at university or any huge skillset, and to feel that bit of action is really positive and powerful.”
I’ve interviewed Yvette before for Huck about Wave Wahines, her pioneering North Devon surf club which welcomes women and girls from all communities, and the North Devon Surf Reserve, which she is heavily involved in. And now, six months into her new role as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Surfers Against Sewage, I’m super excited to speak to her for the newsletter.
We often bump into each other on the beach in Croyde, most recently a few weeks back when she was watching the Wahines playing in the waves with a huge smile on her face. I have a massive respect for Yvette and the effort she’s putting into making surfing more inclusive. I hope you enjoy this chat.
Hey Yvette, it was lovely to see the Wahines in the ocean last month. How are they doing?
They’re doing great, thanks. We had our end of season awards recently. We carry on indoors through the winter, but this is the end of the sea season, and it was really nice for the girls to get together and see what they’ve achieved and for their parents to see it all too. We give prizes for each little group to make sure that everyone is really recognised.
Did you get to run the programme where you teach refugees again this summer?
Yep, that’s now in its third year. Two of the girls who are still coming are from our very first cohort, and for 2024, we’ll have resettled Afghan communities as well as Syrian families, as some new families are moving into the area.
The Pickwell Foundation are pretty much the go-betweens for us, and they say they’re constantly being asked by the girls if they’re surfing again this year. For next summer, along with the surf programme we’ll be doing more holistic learning on being around the water and ocean and what that means environmentally.
How is the North Devon Surf Reserve work going?
Yes good, we want to do a lot more citizen science. We did some pilot eDNA (environmental DNA) testing last month, with a company called NatureMetrics, which was run by the UN Ocean Decade UK-based team. They provided all the equipment, and we did it on Croyde Beach which was really lovely and such a simple thing that anybody could do.
You take a bag, fill it with seawater, and then filter that water. It’s incredible, because to the naked eye you look at the sea and it’s just clear water but as you’re syringing it through you feel that pressure build as all the matter is being compressed into the filtration system. Then it gets taken away to a laboratory for analysis.
What does citizen science give someone that they wouldn’t get from just coming for a swim or surf at the beach?
It adds more connection to what’s going on and a sense of ownership. You see so many headlines that are quite overwhelming and you’re fed constant doom and gloom in the news and on your social media feed. It can be quite debilitating in terms of knowing what you can do.
But then to be able to do something that is really simple and easy, it doesn’t take five or ten years of being at university or any huge skillset, and to feel that bit of action is really positive and powerful.
And to be able to show the level of biodiversity in the ocean, and what we could potentially be losing by not ensuring the water quality is of a high standard, is incredibly important.
Did I hear there’s been some controversy over a wind farm?
Ah the wind farm and the joys of Facebook community groups! The Surf Reserve has been involved in consultations for over a year, and the plans have been fairly well publicised, but some quite scary Facebook headlines have got some people up in arms. We’re trying to support something positive [with renewable energy]. Plymouth Uni have evaluated the wave quality and said it will be unaffected, but people are worried about the traffic during the build phase and disruption to Saunton’s car park. Half the car park there was taken up with filming for two months [for Aquaman 2] but nobody was up in arms about Jason Momoa!!
How is the new role at Surfers Against Sewage going?
My role here has been phenomenal. When I saw it advertised, I thought it was the perfect fit because of all the conversations I’ve had and stuff we’ve put out into the world as Wave Wahines. It suddenly got to a point where I needed to go somewhere. You need to sit at some big decision-making tables, and with SAS I thought this is a huge opportunity for that.
The organisation isn’t just linked to surfing, it’s linked to conservation and environmentalism and advocacy and activism. It's so broad but again equally it’s an industry and sector that has massive barriers.
In my interview I remember asking: “Am I just going to be a tick box? Or is there a genuine will to want to take things forward?”. I do live by my values and integrity is really important to me. I was so impressed by the response I got then, and it’s been the best six months working here.
But we also need to get our own house in order and make sure that the culture within the organisation is reflective of who we want to be. So, evaluating the current demographics of the workforce and culture within the organisation. Asking how people feel, which is all done anonymously.
We’ve been doing anti-racism training, lots of LGBTQ+ training, looking at our comms and who we’re working with currently and how we want to work.
It's all about relationships and authenticity and something being really long term, I don’t like things to be tokenistic. That’s why we haven’t changed any of our imagery to fit the narrative. We need to build our own genuine body of work.
We’re working quite heavily with Black2Nature, who I’ve worked with for Wahines. We have so many inland communities now with our bathing waters, it’s really important we’re connecting with everybody. Wherever you’re based, the water around you will at some point go into the ocean, and will have come from the ocean, so it’s really intrinsic to everybody.
But you’ve had some backlash, as there is always backlash…
I wrote an article for Pipeline, our membership magazine, about me and who I am, and why diversity and representation are really important in our journey going forwards, and in ocean literacy as a whole. And that did come under fire from some people, who said that wasn’t where they wanted their money to go. That’s completely their right but equally it’s really important that we as an organisation respond. The sea and activism are open to everybody, and if we don’t work together, we’re not going to make progress. We need everybody on board.
We’re now building a really strong bank of responses for ourselves and to protect other people that might write for us or collaborate with us. That’s been such a learning from the Opening up the Outdoors programme in terms of ensuring you do have scripted and very structured responses, which makes it easier for the team too.
We have all sorts of versions from mild to slightly more amber to now you’ve had your comment removed because of this, a red line, and it’s really important for the team to feel empowered by that.
What else is coming up for 2024?
We’re looking at putting on a paid internship at SAS in conjunction with the EY Foundation. It would be based in inner city London and using inland waterways to help us increase access into the industry.
For more on Surfers Against Sewage head here, for Wave Wahines head here, and for the North Devon Surf Reserve head here.
Other news:
I’m sadly not at Kendal this weekend but if you’re there make sure you get tickets for the Nidecker snow night so you can watch Thrawn, a new film by my great pal Hannah Bailey, featuring the legend that is Lesley McKenna. Find out more here.
Also, in Lesley/Hannah news, they are offering up some free places on their splitboard/ski touring Wandering Workshops in the Cairngorms this winter. Head here for more info & here’s a piece I wrote on the workshops for the Guardian.
Can’t remember who shared this (apologies for the lack of credit) but enjoyed this thought-provoking piece and well-written article on the Socialist Case for Skiing.
Finally, happy 20th birthday to my friends at Finisterre. Loved the celebratory event last week, which included a great panel hosted by
featuring Finisterre’s founder Tom Kay, Kwame Salam from Tonic Surf and Tessa Khan from Uplift.Please fwd this newsletter to anyone who you think might be interested & if you have any story tips on any of these themes pls get in touch.