Sally McGee, (Sally featured in SurfGirl Issue 55 – Motorcycle Diaries) is on a mission to encourage more women to surf and has launched the new all female surf school in North East England, at Tynemouth. We asked Sally about her new venture and surfing ‘up north’.
I’ve been surfing in the East Yorkshire and the North East now for over 12 years and it’s become so much of a part of who I am. I’ve surfed all over the world but no matter where I am I still get a buzz in my stomach when I think of surfing at home.
I live in a little beach village just east of Newcastle with great transport links to London and the rest of the UK. Surfing up here is definitely on the rise, since I’ve been surfing I have been seeing more and more girls getting in the water and continuing to surf into the cold winter months. It’s fantastic to be a part of an exciting scene like ours. The North East truly is a beautiful part of the UK, we have endless empty stretches of yellow sand and blue flag beaches, with a coastline strewn with ancient castles and picturesque villages. We live in the bustling surf hub of Tynemouth, a great place for learning to surf with its friendly and forgiving beach break.
We want to invite people into our world. We have an amazing community and great beaches with really fun surf. It’s definitely a degree or two colder up here than the South West but our school suits are thicker to make up for it; and we have tea, lots of tea!
I’m keen to get more girls into the water, feeling confident and falling in love with surfing and Yonder is a way for me to do exactly that. We are a family run, small scale surf school run out of a garage or a vintage motorhome in a great part of the country (two hours and forty minutes on the train from London). I teach all the lessons on my own, with a maximum of eight women per group. I want to ensure personalised advice and maximise progression for all my guests and students.
The school offers one to one coaching, private group lessons, regular lessons and fully catered residential surf camps and I aim to create a culture around women surfing in the North East and beyond. To empower those who are struggling to find their place in the line-up or take their first (or next step) towards becoming confident in the sea and really enjoying surfing.
Yonder is a new women’s surf school in the North East of England. The school offers one to one coaching, private group lessons, regular lessons and fully catered residential surf camps.
For more information, follow the Instagram account or visit the website.
@surfyonder
