The Wave Project was on the plan a month before KOSEL had a name. The charity came first. The brand turned up on a Wednesday night in October, ten hours before I got on the bike, which meant it had a job before it had a name.
KOSEL is a Cornish clothing brand I built in 48 hours with Claude, on a bike, and at least £10 from every garment goes to The Wave Project.
What is The Wave Project?
The Wave Project is a surf therapy charity for young people, registered in England and Wales (1163421) and in Scotland (SC046500). It began in September 2010 with 20 young people at Watergate Bay, near Newquay, on a six-week course paid for by the NHS in Cornwall (BJSM abstract, Rotary). Writing in Rotary's magazine in 2022, the charity's own Bude coordinator called it the world's first surf therapy course funded by a government health service. Joe Taylor founded it and ran it for 13 years, and Ramon Van de Velde is chief executive now.
It isn't The Wave, the surf lake near Bristol, although the charity runs sessions there as well.
By its own count it now works with more than 2,600 young people a year across 15 hubs around the UK (The Wave Project), and more than 14,000 have done a course since it started (our impact).
What is surf therapy?
A mentored surfing course with a purpose. Medical News Today describes it as surfing combined with structured individual or group activities (MNT). At The Wave Project that means six weekly sessions with their own surf mentor, then a Surf Club they can keep coming back to (surf therapy). Young people are referred to it as a wellbeing programme. It isn't a clinical treatment or a replacement for NHS care.
Why The Wave Project?
Because I know what a head full of noise feels like.
I've got ADHD and I'm autistic. I get overwhelmed, and calm matters to me in a way that's hard to explain to people who've always had it on tap. The two places mine goes quiet are the sea and a bike on an empty lane. That's why the brand is called KOSEL: it's Cornish for calm.
The Wave Project takes young people who are anxious or struggling and puts them in the sea with someone on their side. The reasons they're referred, listed in the charity's impact report, include anxiety, low mood, isolation, low confidence and trouble at school. If someone had offered me six weeks in the sea with a mentor when I was twelve, I'd have bitten their hand off.
Its also local. The charity started at Watergate Bay, a couple of miles down the coast from Mawgan Porth, where my front wheel meets the Atlantic at the end of this ride. I live on this coast. These are beaches I can cycle to.
To be clear about what KOSEL is: it sells clothes. It doesn't offer therapy, and me going in the sea doesn't count as therapy either, however cold it gets.
Does surf therapy work? What the evidence says
The charity's own numbers are encouraging, though they have no comparison group. Between January 2024 and January 2025 it measured 365 young people on WHO-5, a five-item wellbeing scale from the World Health Organization, and found an 18.8% rise in six weeks, with more than three in four improving (impact report). Its surf therapy page says that in 2024/25, 66.2% felt calmer and 70.3% gained confidence (surf therapy).
There's peer-reviewed work too. In a 2019 study of the charity's surf therapy, one young person put it simply: "When I go there, I feel like I can be myself" (Marshall, Kelly and Niven). The lead author worked for the charity, for what that's worth.
The catch: a 2024 systematic review found only three randomised trials of surf therapy for mental health that met its criteria, and rated the certainty of the evidence very low (BMC review). So the fair summary is consistent before-and-after gains, and not many controlled trials. I won't tell you it cures anything. Two in three young people say they come out calmer, and I'll take that.
Can surf therapy help autistic young people?
The careful answer is that the research is small. An Irish study spoke to 12 autistic young surfers and their families, and confidence was the change parents mentioned most (Britton and others, 2020). A Dutch study of 84 children, some of them autistic or with ADHD, found parents rated their child's quality of life higher after three lessons, with no comparison group (van Ewijk and others, 2020). The 2024 review included no trials with autistic young people.
The Wave Project is listed in the National Autistic Society's services directory (NAS). As an autistic adult with ADHD, the most I can add is that the sea works for me, and I'm one person. If you're a parent weighing it up, start with whoever already knows your child well: a teacher or their doctor.
How do you refer a child to The Wave Project?
Parents can't refer directly. A professional such as a teacher or a doctor signs their organisation up as a referral partner through a free online form and refers the young person. It's free for the family. The referring organisation pays a £150 commitment fee, around 15% of the full cost, and gets it back if the place isn't taken. Nobody needs to be able to swim, and most projects take 8 to 18-year-olds. That's the process as of October 2026; the charity's FAQ is the place to check. If you're a teacher reading this, signing your school up as a referral partner is free; the £150 only comes with a referral.
Buying a hoodie doesn't get anyone a place, and I'd never suggest it does. If a young person needs help now rather than in six weeks, Childline is free for under-19s on 0800 1111, any time.
Where can young people get surf therapy in Cornwall?
Cornwall is where it started. The Wave Project's head office is in Newquay, its first course was at Watergate Bay, and as well as the usual 8 to 18-year-olds it funds places for 18 to 24-year-olds in West Cornwall. In 2021 Watergate Bay was picked to host the International Surf Therapy Organization's first European conference, with The Wave Project as host (Cornish Times). In 2018 the charity was the first winner of Sport for Social Change at the SJA British Sports Awards (Connect Sport).
Where it runs changes as funding comes and goes, so the charity's own list of projects is the one to trust.
Why does the sea make you feel calm?
Nobody can promise it will. A University of Exeter study of nearly 26,000 people found that in England's large towns and cities, living near the coast was linked with better mental health for people in the lowest-earning households (Exeter, 2019). That shows a link. It doesn't prove the sea calms everyone.
For me it's the cold, and having exactly one thing to do. KOSEL is named after that feeling. It can't sell it to you.
How much does a surf therapy course cost?
The Wave Project says it costs £860, on average, to deliver a surf therapy course for one young person (impact report). Families pay nothing. In KOSEL terms that's 86 garments' worth. I'd rather tell you that than round it into something that sounds better. £10 doesn't cover a surf therapy session, and I won't pretend it does.
If you'd rather your money went straight to the charity with no T-shirt in between, give directly. The hoodie's optional.
Which brands support The Wave Project?
Bigger ones than me. Saltrock committed £200,000 over three years in June 2026 (North Devon Gazette). dryrobe partnered with the charity in 2019, with its robes used in sessions (dryrobe). Finisterre and Rockfish are among the names on its supporters page (key supporters).
KOSEL isn't on that page and isn't an official partner. It's a brand a few days old, giving at least £10 a garment from the back of the queue. If you run a brand and you're thinking about it, the charity's partnerships page sets out what each level needs.
How else can you support The Wave Project?
If you're looking for Cornish charities for young people to support, this is the one I picked, and you don't have to buy anything to back it. Give to The Wave Project directly. Volunteer as a surf mentor, or in fundraising, retail or admin, if you're 18 or over (volunteering). If you run a business, back it through Work for Good, which has no minimum (partnerships). Or do something daft for them and get your mates to sponsor you. I can recommend 164 miles on a bike, though I'd pick something shorter. Any of those helps as much as a hoodie does.
My front wheel is due in the sea at Mawgan Porth by midday on Monday. I'll probably follow it in.