Aiden Curtis: Leading To Community

I spent most of my childhood growing up in the ocean orientated community of Croyde, which made accessing a surf environment a lot easier for me. However, at that age, still identifying as female made it hard to find like-minded women in the area who were as keen to start surfing as I was. Most local clubs were extremely male dominated, so my Mum had the initiative to start an all-female group (Wave Wahines) to create a safe space where we could begin or continue our surfing journey in a more comfortable environment.

Later, coming out as a transgender man was a long process. Living in quite a small community, I was worried about people’s opinions but when I eventually came out the support I got from all my friends and family was surprisingly overwhelming. It made me feel more secure in becoming who I knew I was supposed to be. I have faced challenges coming out, with changing jobs and meeting new people in the local area whose viewpoints weren’t as positive as the people in the Croyde surfing community. But having a good support network has helped me overcome those challenges, and get through the times where I felt very low because of it.

There are many transgender people out there that haven’t had the support that I have though, so I wanted to create an environment where even just for a small amount of time they could feel comfortable and confident with being who they are. I believe a lot of my inspiration for wanting to do this stems from my Mum being so proactive and going out of her way to help others.

I know how much being transgender can fill up your thoughts, and having previously worked with the Wave Project I know that the ocean has a way of moving your thoughts and bringing a more positive outlook to your life.

When I first came up with the idea to run a session for transgender and non-binary people in the area, I really didn’t expect as much interest as it got. I thought I was one of a very few people in the local area that were part of this community, but I had no idea! Seeing the turnout for this session was really overwhelming and made me feel less alone, as I’m sure it did for everyone who attended.

As the session went on you could really see more people coming out of their shell and feeling more comfortable which made me extremely proud of myself and my Mum for helping make it happen.

Looking back, if I could speak to my younger self now, I would tell myself to try and reach out to more people in the community sooner. Rather than believing I was alone due to my preconceptions of North Devon’s small, rural communities.

Running the session with likeminded people boosted my confidence significantly, knowing that I didn’t need to hide any parts of myself by acting or talking differently. I want to continue these sessions in the future and have them bring more confidence to even more transgender and non-binary people, as I know that’s what I would have needed when I was struggling to accept myself coming out.