It’s not all big sponsorship contracts and all expenses paid surf trips when you’re a pro surfer. Most have to work hard behind the scenes to fund this expensive lifestyle. Emily Currie is one said surfer and although she has the career highlight opportunity to represent England in the ISA World Longboard Championships in China next year, she now has the mammoth task of raising money to cover the trip expenses. We catch up with Emily to find out how she plans to fund this.
Emily, it’s been a few months since we caught up. How has the Autumn/Winter season been for you so far?
It’s been great so far, thank you. I’ve been getting in the water lots recently and I’ve been doing lots of training too.
You must be so stoked to have been selected represent Surfing England at the ISA Longboard Championships in China next year?
Yes – I am over the moon! Really looking forward to going to China, I’ve never been before, so really excited for a new experience. It’s always a great honour to be asked to represent your country.
Did you have to go through a selection process to get to picked for the team?
Similar to a selection process, we competed all season to get the best results we could, I did this out in Europe, finishing 3rd, and then in this country to, attending all the longboard competitions they put on. I think from that they selected a squad, and then finally a team.
Is is hard to get funding for this kinds of competitions?
It’s so tricky, because Surfing England gets no funding from Sport England or UK Sport, there isn’t any for the English Team, meaning it all has to be self funded. Which is incredibly difficult!
We see you’re planning a fundraising raffle, that’s a awesome idea! How can people help and get involved?
I am indeed, thank you! I did one a few years ago when I went to the ISA World Junior Championships in Nicaragua and that was really successful, so another raffle seemed like a good idea! We are actually doing a Quiz Night & Raffle, which will be held locally in Bude, so I’m really excited for that, it should be great fun.
I am selling raffle tickets, in the form of dates from a diary.
So you choose a date, out of the 365 days in a year, maybe one that is special to you or a birthday & then you get entered into our raffle. Each date is £5 each, and this goes into a prize purse, where 1st prize is a cash prize! After that we have been donated lots of brilliant prizes from local companies and restaurants, as well as a year’s free subscription to SurfGirl. If anyone wants a date/raffle ticket they should get in contact with me.
What has been the highlight of your 2017?
I think finishing 3rd in Europe on the WSL European Longboard Tour. I was in 2nd for most of the year, then got over taken by Justine Dupont at the last event, when she took the win. I was super happy with this result, because I’m getting closer to my goal of qualifying for the WSL World Longboard Tour, which I actually missed out by, by one place. Bummer – but a great achievement for 2017, so one I’m proud of.
And finally … have you got any big plans for 2018?
Well in January it starts off with China, and then things kick off from that really. Hopefully I’ve got a few exciting projects on the horizon, so that will be exciting – just keep an eye out!
