Surf and (Frozen) Turf

Helen Daniels

8 minutes ago

2 min read

This is a short blog about two exciting activities Racheal experienced in June.

The first was the main reason for choosing to spend a week on the Gower Peninsula. Surfing!

Surfability is a specialist surf school situated on Caswell Bay. It has adapted surf boards, beach wheelchairs and changing rooms with hoists and changing tables. The first challenge was to get Racheal into a wetsuit- a struggle, but essential in the cold British seas. Summer also donned a wetsuit though, due to some miscommunication, she didn’t get to have a go at surfing. Racheal enjoyed riding in the beach wheelchair down to the water’s edge, but was not so happy to put on a buoyancy aid and helmet before transferring to the surf board.

Once on the board, the instructors towed her out to sea, which looked quite challenging, before one of them climbed onto the back to surf back to shore.

The session lasted an hour, so Racheal got quite a few goes at riding the waves. Unfortunately, I don’t think she was very comfortable, but when Summer could get close enough to speak to her, Racheal said she was having a good time and wanted more goes.

We had hoped to stop off at Milton Keynes, on the way home from Wales, so Racheal could go skiing but the ski instructor who is qualified to use the sit-ski only works at weekends, which didn’t tie in with our plans. Instead we had a few days at home before heading back to Milton Keynes for a two nights in a Premier Inn. On the Friday night we had a go at ten pin bowling. Racheal won!

Then on the Saturday morning, on a very hot day, we donned our warmest clothes and went to Snozone, where the temperature was below zero, to meet the instructor, John. He was excellent with Racheal, chatting to her and getting to know her before making sure she was comfortable in the sit-ski. Once we were all happy, he took her to the top of the slope using the ski lift and gave her a couple of runs back down. Racheal wasn’t too sure about it, but we will definitely try skiing again as I have a feeling it’s something she will enjoy once it’s more familiar.