Waterman Festival December 5 to 12

Barbados’ first Waterman Festival and Beach Culture World Championship will be an impressive blend of water and land-based sports for Barbadians and visitors alike to enjoy.

This was the view shared by former Olympian and well-known local windsurfer Brian “de Action Man” Talma, as he spoke today to Barbados TODAY about the upcoming festival.

According to Talma, the stage is ready to go for this year’s inaugural set of festivities which will have international competitors coming to the island to showcase their skills in a unique mix with local athletes from other disciplines.

“At this event what we will be doing is to bring all the sports of land sports and action sports together. So we have wind surfing, kite surfing, paddle surfing, but at the same time on the beach we will be having beach cricket, hockey, football, golf and athletics.

“Our vision is to blend it with the surfing, kite surfing, paddle surfing, where people actually come to Barbados because we have the best conditions, and blend it with the land-based sports, because our vision is to position Barbados to have the best beach culture in the world,” he said.

The event runs from December 5th to 12th, and is geared towards the continued development of water based tourism and sports on the island. The sectors, according to Talma, are niche in nature but provide lucrative returns for workers who are often young persons from small communities around the island.

He insisted that it was his aim to continue providing job opportunities for young people in and around these communities, as it will lead to more positive behaviours.

“We will be articulating the Global Organic Tourism Action Plan; so the vision for 35 years, I collaborate with Roger Miller, what we do is we get persons from the community, part of the action. So we have a group of kids from Carters Gap who we have taught to surf, also to wind surf, also we have other fellas from the area who we are getting into the sport, and to maintain the sport.”

He added: “Healthy minds lead to healthy actions, so the vision is also to build up the beach culture within communities such as Silver Sands, Carters Gap and even Bathsheba.”

According to Talma, the festival will have a phase 2 element scheduled to take place in June 2023. (SB)