I never set out to start a surf camp. It just started because I wanted people to surf with, it’s that simple.

Where it actually began

During COVID, I found myself back home from university desperate to get outside and try something new. On a whim, I bought a cheap second-hand surfboard and decided to teach myself to surf, how hard could it be? I wasn’t very good — honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I bought the wrong board (a hard board, not a soft-top), didn’t watch any videos, didn’t get any lessons, and just assumed I’d figure it out on my own. My mum used to come down to the beach and watch me struggle, and after a while she even told me to give up because I clearly wasn’t getting anywhere. I persisted for a few more weeks, still barely standing up, it was just pure trial and error and a huge amount of self motivation.

Eventually, I booked one surf lesson at a local surf school. They gave me a beginner surf-top board, and suddenly I was standing up and catching my first waves! That night, I ordered my own soft-top ‘foamie’ online, and everything changed.

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Cornwall, Strangers, & Saying Yes

Not long after that, I drove 8hrs to Cornwall in my Ford Focus and met three lads from a random travel group on Facebook. It’s sounds sketchy, looking back maybe it was a bit unhinged. We spent the week surfing and living out of our cars. It was spontaneous, cheap, pretty rogue, but one of those trips that just sticks with you. That feeling — surfing, travelling, and doing it with people who are on the same wavelength — is what everything else stemmed from.

Solo Travelling & Falling in Love, with Surfing

After graduating, I went solo travelling around Bali, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. Lombok, in Bali, was where I really fell in love with surfing. It has waves for every level, warm water, dolphins, waterfalls, good people… everything. It’s the place I keep coming back to year after year, and eventually the place I knew I wanted to host a trip.

I spent 18 months travelling across three gap years, and surfing became part of my life. But even then, I was intimidated by busy lineups and surfing alone in new countries.

Something was missing at home

When I came home from travelling, most of my friends didn’t surf, or they had kids, or corporate jobs they couldn’t just disappear to Cornwall for a week. So I put a post in a Facebook travel group, saying something like: “Hey, I’m Liv, 21, I love surfing, hiking, rock climbing, anything outdoors and adventurous. I’m putting a group together to go camping and surfing in Cornwall, who’s in?”

Over 500 people messaged me!

I made a group chat, an itinerary and booking form in a spreadsheet, booked a campsite, and naively put my bank details in the chat. I capped it at 25 people, it sold out instantly. There was so many messages, I put out the same trip again the following week. That sold out instantly too. That summer, I ended up running 5 back-to-back trips to Cornwall. Four days on camp, two days off — exploring and surfing with people I’d met on the camps. I was absolutely knackered, but it was the best summer I’d ever had.

How it turned into a community

What surprised me most wasn’t how quickly the trips filled — it was how people stayed in touch. Strangers became mates, real quick. Some of the people I met on the early Cornwall trips are still some of my closest friends now.

I started a local Sunday Surf Club as well, mainly because I didn’t want to surf alone in Norfolk. It ended up being mostly women, which I think is because surfing is very male-dominated and this club felt like a safe space. Some Sundays we’d surf, paddle board, race each other paddling, or just hang out at the beach or the skatepark. It was never about being the best surfer. It was about being together. There’s still a WhatsApp group now where people message most days asking if anyone wants to surf, or just general advice. That alone makes it all feel worth it.

The International Trips

The first international trip was to Portugal, with friends I’d met through the Cornwall camps. I sorted everything ahead of my van life trip around Europe and met the group at the airport in Lisbon. That’s where everything started coming together. After the coolest week in Portugal, next on my list was taking people to my favourite surf island, Lombok.

I went back to Lombok to plan the overseas surf camp properly. I sorted all the villas, transport, surf instructors, tour guides, and perfected the route I would take around the islands (because importantly it’s not just a surf camp!). I built the website in winter alongside working full-time, and put everything I had into making the trip work.

That Bali-Lombok trip was genuinely the best experience of my life. Some people stayed on afterwards, and I ended up spending six weeks travelling with friends I’d met through my surf camps. We still stay in contact, we even recently had a reunion weekend back in Norfolk. You become so close so quickly when you travel and share moments out of your comfort zone, even a four-day Cornwall trip does that.

Why this matters to me

I’m not going to say ‘you find yourself on a trip’ — but you do leave with more confidence than when you arrived, that’s a fact.

Surfing alone can be scary. Having someone there, even just to cheer you on when you catch a wave, makes such a difference. Whether you’re laughing at tiny wipeouts in white water, or catching the biggest wave you’ve ever caught, it hits differently when someone actually sees it.

For me, these camps came at a time when life felt messy and uncertain. And they’ve ended up being the best 3 years of my life.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, you want to surf, travel, get outside, and meet people who are up for adventure — you’ll probably fit right in. You don’t need to be a surfer. You don’t need to know anyone. You just need to be open to giving it a go.

You can check out the upcoming trips here, or come along to a Sunday Surf Club and see what it’s all about.