On October 6th, 7th, and 8th the first European Seminary of adapted surfing , organised by Play and Train Association, will take place.

Play and Train aims at making it easier for handicapped people to access sports. Their task, however, expands to other fields: education in values, personal growth and coexistence through sports, educational programmes and awareness towards disabled people, volunteering and counselling to companies with inclusive vocation among other functions.

?Sports normalize. Sports embrace. Sports educate?

With the organization of this seminary, Play and Train wants to locate Fuerteventura in the map of adapted surfing, taking advantage of the weather conditions in the island and also because there is a great potential in the growth of accessibility.
Play and Train arrived in Fuerteventura in 2011, when its first adapted surfing camp took place, and since then there have been different camps where adults and children with any sensory, physical or psychological disability have learnt to surf and enjoy the waves.
This seminary aims at improving the basis of surf to make it reach a paralympic level, that is, to establish what kind of material will be the most suitable regarding competition; regarding medical classification, what disabilities and what categories are going to be established within the frame of competition; moreover, an exchange among the different programmes of adapted surfing in Europe (Spain, Italy and Portugal) and The United States will be conducted.
The seminary includes conferences with national and international sportsmen, talks with speakers from international organisms of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Surf Association (ISA); round tables where technical aspects of surfing as a sport of competition will be dealt with, medical classification, material, anti-doping. Topics like the importance of surfing as the economic engine of an area, equipment, presentation of the different programmes of adapted surfing will be dealt with.
The International Paralympic Committee recognised, last July, the surf as a sport, which opened the doors to fight and make surfing turn into a Paralympic Sport, that?s to say, to take part of future Paralympic Games.
?This seminary will be the first of several, and the idea for the future is to accompany every seminary with a competition that will allow carrying out the necessary studies to establish the medical classifications?, Mariona Masdemont states, co-founder and Manager of Play and Train Projects.
This first seminary will be possible thanks to the human and economic effort by Play and Train,
the contribution of funds by Erasmus plus sport programme from the European Community and the support by several companies in the island like Bristol Sunset Beach and Dry Surf Fuerteventura.
The Congress is open to all audiences and will take place in Bristol Sunset Beach from 9:00h.

For further information: www.playandtrain.org ? mariona@playandtrain.org