Lost Shore Surf Resort has won the Surf Park Community Impact Award at the 2026 Surf Park Summit in Virginia Beach, USA, securing international recognition for its work to make surfing more accessible and use the sport as a force for positive social change.
The award recognises surf parks creating meaningful, lasting change in their communities through areas including youth programmes, regional partnerships, inclusive participation, workforce development and surf therapy.
Since opening near Edinburgh in November 2024, Lost Shore has made community impact a central part of the resort, working with organisations including The Wave Project and Inclusive Surfing Scotland to open up the benefits of surfing to people who might otherwise struggle to access them.
The Wave Project is the UK’s surf therapy charity, using surfing and one-to-one volunteer mentoring to support children and young people experiencing mental health challenges, helping them build confidence, resilience and self-esteem.
In 2025, it delivered its six-week Surf Therapy programme at Lost Shore to 62 young people aged eight to 18 from across Fife, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire, the Lothians and Glasgow, with every participant receiving one-to-one support. Weekly Surf Club sessions provided more than 400 hours of continuing support.
Lost Shore’s inland location has also enabled The Wave Project to accept referrals from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, West Lothian and parts of inner-city Edinburgh that it previously could not reach.
Inclusive Surfing Scotland provides adaptive surfing for children and adults with disabilities, breaking down barriers to the sport through tailored equipment and professional support in safe, inclusive environments. At Lost Shore, consistent and customisable waves, accessible changing facilities and adapted water access allow the charity to support everyone from first-time adaptive surfers to experienced para surfers.
In 2025, Inclusive Surfing Scotland delivered 76 sessions supporting 79 surfers, with all surveyed participants reporting that surfing made them feel more confident and happier and improved their mental health.
Andy Hadden, founder of Lost Shore Surf Resort, said: “This award means an enormous amount because community impact was never something we intended to bolt onto Lost Shore after we opened. It was part of the reason for building it in the first place.
“What makes me proudest is seeing young people find confidence in the water, disabled surfers catch waves with Inclusive Surfing Scotland, and our facility used to support emergency service workers.
“To have that work recognised internationally is incredibly special. It shows that a surf park can be much more than somewhere to catch waves. Our ambition now is to keep widening access and show that commercial success and meaningful social impact can go hand in hand.”
Ruaridh Farquharson of The Wave Project said: “Lost Shore has changed who we can reach. A young person in Glasgow, Lanarkshire or inner-city Edinburgh should not be excluded from the benefits of surf therapy simply because they live too far from the sea.
“At Lost Shore we have a safe, predictable environment and, crucially, the community of trained volunteers that makes surf therapy work. “Our evaluation data consistently shows positive improvements in the wellbeing of the young people who take part, and research shows that every £1 invested to our Surf Therapy courses returns £2 in social value. We see these benefits every day in the water.”
“Iain Donaldson of Inclusive Surfing Scotland said: “For many disabled people, the barriers to surfing start long before they ever reach the water.
“Having accessible changing facilities, smooth water access, and customisable waves at Lost Shore completely changes what’s possible. Supported by our specially trained coaches and volunteers, we’re seeing people who never imagined they could surf discover the total freedom and joy of riding a wave.
“Our impact evaluations have shown that surfing not only builds physical fitness, but positively impacts our surfers’ mental health and resilience. Recognition like this sends a vital message to the global surf industry: accessibility must be built into the future of the sport.”
Lost Shore’s wider community work includes Surfwell Blue Light CIC, which has brought trauma-informed surf therapy for frontline emergency service workers to Scotland, as well as a curriculum-linked Surf and STEM programme for schools and The Surf Lab, its research partnership with Edinburgh Napier University exploring surfing, performance, health and wellbeing.
The Community Impact Award follows Lost Shore’s Innovation Award win at the 2025 Surf Park Awards, giving the Edinburgh resort back-to-back international recognition.
