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Nick Hounsfield | Surfer | Health & Social Entrepreneur

@wavemakernick

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Founder @thewave
@oneblue.world
Between waves 🌊 and mountains
Surfer | Skier | Fisherman
Stroke survivor
Wavemaker
Ambassador @bluemarinefoundation

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A bit about me…

Started in healthcare for 18 years trying to understand how bodies heal.

Ended up building a slice of ocean in the middle of Bristol called @thewave

In between:

230 investor pitches.
Raised £30million.
Had a big stroke in 2020
Starting again from scratch.

Water changes people.
Not metaphorically.
Biologically.

The research calls it blue health.

I just call it what I’ve watched happen, over and over, when people get near the ocean.

Now I’m building @oneblue.world with amazing people,
to create communities designed around that idea.

And we have just written a book about it with @abbycornwall , called Do Blue.

This account is where I share what I’m learning.

The hard-won bits, mostly.

Welcome 🌊 🤙🏼 taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @wavemakernick

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7 months ago

Whilst I might not be able to work at the very place I visioned… I still appreciate what we built together.

#founderslife #thewave by @wavemakernick

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a year ago

So pleased to announce our new shark 🦈 rehabilitation program at The Wave. Specifically for sharks that have been injured or have had historical anger issues.

Interestingly we have noticed that surfers don’t fall off so much since their introduction… so it’s win win.

#surfing #rehab #sharks by @wavemakernick

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2 years ago

WSL @thewave hosted by the wonderful @evie.robertzon

Sponsors:
@dryrobe @firewiresurfboards @dakine @goodr @stanceofficial @waterhaul_co @wiperandtrue @arborskateboards taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @wavemakernick

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14 days ago

Static shots from TheWave this week 📷 had fun filming some moments here. by @wavemakernick

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14 days ago

In 2019 The Wave @thewave had only just opened, and @alan_stokes and I paddled out on surfboards made from cigarette butts.

Thousands of them, picked off beaches by hand, laid into a mosaic and glassed into a board that rode beautifully. The wave was perfect, the board was perfect, and we had one of the best sessions I can remember.

But the bit that stayed with me was in the water between waves.
Other surfers paddling over, asking what on earth we were riding.
And every time, the same conversation started: what we flick away, where it ends up, and what any of us can actually do about it.

That board has now become a film.
The Cigarette Surfboard premieres online from 15 September and streams until the 27th, with @easkeysurf, @chrishinessurfs Fergal Smith and @surfersagainstsewage along for the ride.

Big respect to Taylor Lane and Ben Judkins for building it, and for reminding me that activism for the ocean can start with a good session and a curious question.

Link in bio to watch.

#CigaretteSurfboard #TheWave #BlueHealth #OceanActivism

@thecigarettesurfboard
@oneblue.world
@jackjohnson
@rob_machado
@mikeyfebruary
@wavegarden_official
@wavepoolmag taken in The Wave, Bristol by @wavemakernick

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a month ago

I came to the water heavy,
I left the water light,
Nothing changed but me.

I’ll choose someone to send this message to by post… tag 🏷️ a friend by @wavemakernick

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a month ago

We were on a quick trip to the edge of Kenya and Somalia. Careful around the pirates!

After an hour watching bait balls exploding, we caught this beautiful Spearfish which we quickly returned. Such an adventure! taken in Kiwayu by @wavemakernick

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a month ago

There is a room I am not in next week.

In 2011 I had a field, a drawing, and an idea most people thought was ridiculous.

Ten years and more than 230 investor pitches later, The Wave opened in Bristol. The first @wavegarden_official Cove in the world. A place built on the belief that water makes people well, and that the ocean should not only belong to those who happen to live near it.
I am not part of the surf park industry anymore. That is simply where things stand, and I have made my peace with it.

But I watch.

I watch parks opening in places that have never had a wave. I watch adaptive sessions where someone rides a wave for the first time in their life. I watch operators starting to talk seriously about water, energy, and who actually gets through the gate. When I started, most of those conversations did not exist. Now they are the centre.

So yes, when @surfparkcentral Summit comes around, I feel it.

Some part of me will always be standing at the edge of that lagoon at 6am, watching the first set of the day roll in.

The rest of me is somewhere else now, building something with the same idea underneath it. @oneblue.world

Water. Health. Places designed so people can thrive.

Different scale, same current at and i’m even more excited about that.

To everyone heading to the Summit, enjoy every minute of it.
What you are building matters far beyond surfing...

...if you do it right.

#SurfParks
#BlueHealth
#Placemaking
#Wellbeing by @wavemakernick

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a month ago

France 🇫🇷 pt 1
@noah.hounsfield
@dylan.hounsfield by @wavemakernick

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3 months ago

“What do blue spaces give us that green spaces can’t?

Green space is good for us - that’s well established. But water adds something of its own.

The sound of it.
The light moving on its surface.
The sense of openness.

Research on ‘blue health’ links time near water to lower stress and better mood, over and above green space alone.

It’s not green versus blue. It’s what happens when we design for both.” by @wavemakernick

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3 months ago

🌊 NEW EPISODE DROPPING TODAY at 6pm on Inside the Maverick Minds You Tube channel 🌊

He pitched to 230+ investors. Most said no.

He raised £30 million. Built the UK's first inland surf destination.

Then soon after opening - he had a stroke.

Nick Hounsfield's story is one of the most extraordinary we've featured on Inside the Maverick Mind.

From osteopath to founder, from burnout to breakthrough - Nick didn't just build The Wave. He built a new kind of medicine.

And then he had to use it himself.
Don't miss this one. Dropping TODAY at 6pm. 🎙️
LINKS in Comments

#TheWave #maverickmindset #insidethemaverickmind #dolectures @wavemakernick @insidethemaverickmind by @wavemakernick

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3 months ago