The International Adaptive Surfing Summit 2023 officially presented in Somo, Cantabria

The vice president of the region of Cantabria has presented to the media the International Summit of Adapted Surfing Inclusea at the Somo Surfing Center, where scientifically based programs will be implemented for people with physical and/or sensory disabilities

Santander – 11th of April 2023

Somo, Loredo and Galizano (Ribamontán al Mar) will be the venues where the International Adapted Surf Summit 2023 will take place between April 27 and 30, a unique event organized within the framework of the European project Inclusea, dedicated to inclusion and equality in sport for people with disabilities through surfing.

Just today, the Vice President and counsellor for Universities, Equality, Culture and Sports, Pablo Zuloaga, publicly presented the event, which links “sustainability, because when we talk about surfing, we talk about commitment with our oceans, our coasts and surf breakers and of course with the quality of water, and accessibility, ensuring a more tolerant, open and therefore more inclusive Cantabria”.

According to the vice president, with the organization of this unique event, Cantabria is once again leading the way in using sport as a “means of equality” and “sustainable development” at national, European and international levels. “It’s about making surfing as a sport as accessible as possible,” he said.

Moreover, this summit in particular and surfing in general, as recognized by Pablo Zuloaga, “is “an opportunity for growth and development for Cantabria” because it boosts the economy and employment and deseasonalizes the tourist offer in the region. “More and more visitors are coming to our land, attracted by the best breakers,” he emphasized.

Together with the Vice President, the General Director of Sports, Mario Iglesias, the Mayor of Ribamontán al Mar, Francisco Asón, the Coordinator of European Projects of the Regional Society of Education, Culture and Sports, Javier Cantera, the Technical Director of the Cantabrian Surfing Federation, Pedro Gutiérrez, and the Coordinator of Adapted Surfing of the Deutscher Wellenreit Verband ( German Surfing Federation), Marie Schacht.

Francisco Asón thanked all those involved for the “support” of this event and offered the “total collaboration” of his City Hall to continue organizing activities that improve accessibility to the beaches of the municipality.

Event Schedule

Ribamontán al Mar, which, as stated by the vice president, is the first Surf Reserve in Spain and one of the most important surf areas in Europe, will host a four-day program of workshops, conferences and outdoor activities with outstanding specialists in the training of adapted surfing, therapeutic surfing and the marine environment from all over Europe.

This Inclusea international summit on adaptive surfing will deliver academic content in a theoretical-practical format, offering the findings of a cutting-edge global study and a systematic review of the methods, design, approaches and interventions of different scale adaptive surfing programs.

The event provided a new educational framework based on scientific evidence and a set of recommendations tools to be implemented in surfing programs for people with physical and/or sensory disabilities.

In this sense, the summit will be the testing ground for the Inclusea methodology, which has been under development since 2021. Thus, the Cantabric Sea will be the testing site that will bring together the best of adaptive surfing, with more than 200 participants between surf instructors, coaches, therapists, volunteers, athletes, blue health and sports scientists and researchers, ecologists, surf federations, surf clubs, non-profit organizations and various representatives of adapted sports.

The ultimate goal is to test the effectiveness, validate the results, discuss the results and develop a bottom-up approach so that it can be integrated into European adaptive surfing programmes.