Winter Vincent, ripping in surfing and in life. Photos: Instagram/Winter Vincent
When Winter Vincent was just 9-years-old, he decided that he would do something big. He wanted to help people. The kid from Manly organized an assembly at his school, auctioned off two of his surfboards, and raised $3000. Then he turned around and gave it to Waves for Water, a non-profit that has a very simple mission: to get clean water to every person who needs it. Now, at 11-years-old, Winter has started a new project called Surf to School.
“It kind of started with a school project for World Water Day,” Winter explained about that first assembly. “The project was called ‘Kids Can Make a Difference.’ So I checked out the Waves4Water website and saw Rob Machado and Connor Coffin and guys like that were surfing these amazing places and helping people along the way and I thought I could do that. But even before that, when I visited Bali I remember noticing there was so much rubbish everywhere. The rivers were disgusting, it was unbelievable.”
Soon after, Jon Rose, the founder of Waves for Water, reached out to Winter. He was so impressed that he offered to take Winter along on a trip to the Mentawai Islands where just over 5000 people would receive clean water filters. Winter, of course, jumped at the opportunity.
Winter’s new endeavor, Surf to School, is a simple and effective one. It’s a dress up day for students, who can come to school in surfing gear–wetsuits, board shorts, zinc, etc–and bring in small donations to raise money for water filters.
“Each child brings a pocket money or spare change donation to participate,” says the Waves for Water site. “Every child and their school can make it as unique as they like.” So far, it’s a wide-reaching success. “About 26 schools around the world participate in Surf to School now,” Winter said. “We have schools in California, Jakarta, and Canada, but I want schools all around the world to do it.”
All donations from the Surf to School project go to Mentawai Island and Indonesian communities, a part of the world that’s in desperate need of access to clean water. According to Waves for Water, 1 in 5 Indonesian children under the age of five die from drinking dirty water. The water filter system Waves for Water created costs only $50 and provides clean water for 100 people for years on end. For an 11-year-old, Winter has his priorities in place. “$50 is all it takes for me to change a whole family, a whole village’s life,” he says. “I was keen to give it a go of raising some money.”
If you’re a student who wants to help out, click here. For more information on the Waves4Water organization, please visit WavesforWater.org
To see more of Winter’s epic journey, check him out on Instagram.
