RyanAir helps plug financial gap facing English Junior Surf Team

Faced with a funding shortfall that has been threatening to prevent some of the country’s top young surfers from competing at the European Surfing Championships, the English Junior Surf Team has welcomed the news that Ryanair has stepped in to lend a hand.

The budget airline has agreed to cover the flight costs for the four team coaches and managers as they head out to Morocco next month. The Championships are being held near Agadir between November 28th and December 6th and are a key event in the junior international surfing calendar.

Earlier this year, several surf industry companies and outfits rallied together for an ‘inter-company surf battle’, organised by the English Surfing Federation (ESF) to raise cash for the team. This was backed up by generous donations from several Cornish businesses including Acorn, the Newquay Guardian and Newquay Cornwall Airport.

But with less than six weeks to go until the start of the competition, the ESF is still two thousand pounds short of the ten-thousand pound target, meaning that the 14 team members and their families could be left to foot the bill.

“There’s still a long way to go,” says Rob Barber, from the ESF surf school. “The inter-company surf battle was a massive success and we’re incredibly grateful for this latest funding boost from Ryanair which will be a huge benefit. But we’re still encouraging businesses large and small to support us in any way they can.

Obviously times are tough but it’s vital that our country’s top young surfers are given the backing they need to go and compete on the international stage. After all, they are the future of English surfing and it’s an industry that generates millions of pounds every year.”

Over the last few months members of the team itself have been doing their bit to raise sponsorship, hitting the phones to talk to leading surf brands and trying to encourage as many businesses as possible to get on board. Team coach Pauly Jefferies says they deserve all the help they can get. “It’s actually a real shame that our country’s best surfers traditionally struggle to get out to important competitions in Europe and beyond.

English surfing is going from strength to strength and the profile of the sport has really grown. It would be great to get to the point where all of our energies could be focused on training as opposed to finding the much-needed cash to go and compete. Hopefully this latest gesture from Ryanair will inspire other companies to follow suit. In the meantime, we’re working overtime to get the team ready for Morocco and we’re confident they’ll come away with some excellent results”.

Can you help? In addition to funding, the team are looking for transportation to get them and their boards to Stanstead at the end of November. To lend a hand please contact Rob at the English Surfing Federation on 07974 729 639.