All this sounded really good and interesting to me so I immediately tried to figure out how to make my contribution to it, expressing my interest to Linzi in helping out with the project. The idea behind SUPKids was to provide a series of didactic materials for SUP schools wanting to include a program capable of bringing together SUP, water safety and environmental consciousness. In this sense it is a commercial program, for SUP schools interested in offering this kind of activity to young kids. But what interested me the most in the SUPKids program was the fact that it includes a social and charitable branch, the Give Back Programs. On many of my trips I got in touch with local communities living by the water, but often disconnected from it due to cultural impoverishment, knowledge loss and the sort of issues that severe poverty can cause.
Many times I thought about how to give something back and more importantly how to leave something after my departure from such paradisiacal but troubled places. I guess that sharing some conversations about our common bond with the ocean and leaving some basic knowledge tools to the next generation of local watermen is a good way to start.
Actually, it is from here that SUPKids project was born a few years ago in Mossman Gorge, Australia. Linzi started collaborating with Royal Flying Doctor Service to give environmental and safety lessons to kids from aboriginal communities living in very remote places in North Queensland.
Linzi used SUP as a vehicle to teach about more important life skills such as rescuing procedures, environmental protection, health care. What she noticed was that these kids suddenly developed much more interest in the topic by teaching all this outside of a classroom, on a SUP board by the beach.
