‘I had no friends,” says Charlotte Banfield, a gold medal-winning world para surf champion. “And no interests. I was very depressed. It was all going to end very badly indeed for me.” Banfield – who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism, and was being bullied at school – thought of taking her life. But then, aged 13, she was enrolled by her mum in a six-week surfing course run by the Wave Project, which helps to improve children’s confidence and ease their anxiety through riding breakers. It was a pivotal moment, not least because Banfield was about to be excluded from school.
Her first surf class was a disaster, though. “I ran away and locked myself in the car. I had a phobia of water. I couldn’t stand it on my skin.” But something – perhaps the sense that there was “no pressure” – brought her back. “When I went up on my first wave, I felt free for the first time in my life.” This liberation turned her life around. “I went back into education and, though I left school with no GCSEs, I got a masters in marine biology. Surfing gave me confidence.”
