Yonder

And finally Tynemouth, Longsands has its very own Surfers Code sign 🥳

This is one that has been talked about here for years. Tales of seeing these signs on visits around the U.K. the South West, Scotland, abroad in Portugal, France, Australia, the USA, practically every surf town has one of these, a way to inform, educate, empower and help keep everyone safe in the water. Well now, we are pleased to announce that we have our very own here in Tynemouth, Longsands ⚡️⚡️⚡️

This has been two years in the actual making. Lots of back and forths, ‘ums and ahhs’, ‘yey and nays’, a careful consideration acknowledging the importance of sensitivity alongside being informative and inclusive, colourful, creative and bold. It’s been a journey but an important one with a lasting legacy to support our surf scene.

We didn’t want any old sign, we wanted a piece of artwork and we wanted @zach_rush_ to bring our beach to life. What a legend he’s been, patient, insightful, creative, endless conversations about what’s possible, what might need to be left out and what will look the best. Knowing that we might not be able to please everyone but making sure we do our best.

We hope the wider community loves it as much as we do. A huge huge thank you to everyone that has been involved, the groups and individuals providing feedback and support and just getting behind it 🙌

A MASSIVE thank you to @northseaweekender for coming in and helping to push it over the line when we were close to giving up, awesome 🙏

@oli_wickham from @rapid9signs 🙌

@tynemouthsurfco // @sandykerr_ //

📷 @tombingphoto

Importantly, a huge motivation for pushing on with making this sign was the number of surfers and swimmers that get caught out in the rip at Longsands. Devastatingly last May a young life was lost after a teenager who was celebrating the end of his exams got into difficulty in the permanent rip current. We really hope if this sign does anything at all, it helps go some way to preventing such a tragedy from happening again.

Surf and create ✌️

#surferscode #staysafe