I first started getting involved in inland surf destinations in 2017 when I worked as the Operations Director for the Wave, Bristol. The role involved helping to create, build and operate the world’s first Wavegarden Cove. Wavegarden are the market leader in inland surf technology.
In surfing terms creating the Wave, Bristol was like landing a rocket ship on the moon, in that it had never been done before! It involved building everything from scratch and working with a whole host of different parties to get the destination open, which we did in November 2019.
One of the challenges we faced was assuring our insurance provider that we were a competent partner to work with, that we understood the risks associated with operating the facility and that we had sufficient mitigations in place to bring these risks down to an acceptable level.
We needed to work with an experienced risk management provider to do this. We needed a company that could help us break down an experience that had never been delivered before into a set of manageable tasks, that people could understand and benchmark accordingly.
I left the Wave, Bristol in September 2020 and went on to work as the Chief Operating Officer for the Lost Shore Surf Resort, Edinburgh in December 2020.
The Lost Shore Surf Resort is the eighth Wavegarden Cove in the world, it is the largest Wavegarden Cove in Europe and the world’s first inland surf resort. The Lost Shore Surf Resort also involved building everything from scratch and we opened the destination in November 2024.
The Wave and the Lost Shore Surf Resort were both innovative and groundbreaking projects which involved navigating uncharted territory on a day to day basis and knowing what BCarm could offer in terms of both their systems and processes and their knowledge and expertise made them an obvious company to work with.
BCarm helped us create a structure and a way of working that provided greater visibility, including a central hub for all our health and safety policies and operational procedures. BCarm also provided us with a portfolio of risk assessments to learn from and adapt accordingly.
The fact that all our Health and Safety information is stored in one place, that we can trust the expertise of the BCarm team and that we have access to all the data to enable us to make key decisions, is crucial. It is these decisions that will ultimately keep our team and customers safe.
The BCarm team were always available to consult with and sense-check our approach.
The BCarm team worked collaboratively with us, they challenged our thinking and helped us refine our work as we progressed towards opening the Resort. Once the risk assessments were established, we created a bank of checklists to help ensure that we had everything in place.
The risk assessments, checklists and incident numbers form the basis of our monthly Health and Safety Committee meetings, where we continue to review progress, monitor results and adapt accordingly.
With an entirely new team that had never worked in the setting before, having clear roles and responsibilities and providing the necessary training to get people started were both essential components in building our health and safety culture.
Whether visitors to the Lost Shore Surf Resort are beginners or experienced surfers, the majority of them will have never surfed a Wavegarden Cove before. If we can reassure them that we take our responsibilities to Health and Safety seriously, then we will by default, enable them to relax, enjoy the experience and engage with our sport, which means that they are more likely to return and recommend us to their friends and family.
This is the foundation of the business.
Health and Safety has evolved from the days when companies had a person who was solely responsible for it. While having a Health and Safety policy remains essential, you also need to have a structure and a process behind it that develops a rhythm and enables the business to operate effectively.
BCarm does this — it offers a consistent and robust approach to Health and Safety and enables the whole team to access and embrace it.
The value of the BCarm system isn’t just in its instant dashboards, it’s in the data and the information that sits beneath them. Knowing our KPIs and how we are performing against them enables us to be agile and to adapt when we need to.
The fact that all our Health and Safety information is stored in one place, that we can trust the expertise of the BCarm team and that we have access to all the data to enable us to make key decisions, is crucial. It is these decisions that will ultimately keep our team and customers safe.
