One of Ocean Grove’s most anticipated events of the year is back and will again aim to put smiles on dials.
Disabled Surfers Association Ocean Grove has been running since the summer of 2009 and is one of the biggest of its kind in the country.
The event, established to give people with disability the experience of surfing, is held on the first Sunday of February and March each year and regularly attracts more than 80 participants and hundreds of volunteers.
And while volunteer numbers are always strong, DSA Ocean Grove president Jeremy Swift said there can’t be too many.
“It’s a very popular event – we’re really the only organisation that provides this at no cost so we need a lot of volunteers to make the day go smoothly,” he said.
Volunteers don’t necessarily have to be in the water either. Volunteer photographers are more than welcome.
“There’s plenty of jobs for people who don’t want to get into the water,” Mr Swift said.
“You can assist in getting people in chairs down to the beach and back. Escorting some of our surfers down to the beach and we need to keep our volunteers watered and fed so there’s running water to them and we’ve got the Rotary Club, who do an awesome job cooking all the sausages for us, but we need to get it down to them onto the beach and we’ve got our registration and merchandise.”
Some participants have been to every event since 2008 and it can be the highlight of their year.
DSA’s slogan is ‘smiles on dials’, but Mr Swift said it’s so much more than that.
“Smiles on dials doesn’t really convey how amazing it is for a lot of the people we take surfing,” he said.
“For some it’s their only chance of the year to actually get in the ocean because family and friends may not have the skills and the equipment.”
The first event is at Ocean Grove main beach on Sunday February 4. Go to disabledsurfers.org/vic-ocean-grove to register a participant or volunteer and for more information.
