What is Coasteering?

Coasteering is a popular and growing activity that takes place in many locations around the UK Coastline and, increasingly, in other parts of the world. It provides a unique activity that allows people to explore and experience the coast like never before with many challenges, learning opportunities and excitement to be had along the way.  

While the term coasteering can be used to describe a range of activities linked to activity around the sea, the National Coasteering Charter (NCC) defines coasteering as: 

An activity that includes swimming, jumping, scrambling, and or traversing along and in the fore-shore region of a coastline under the guidance of a coasteering guide. When participating in the activity of coasteering, participants should wear an appropriate wetsuit, personal floatation device, helmet and closed-toe footwear that is secured to the foot. 

Most people have their first experience of coasteering as part of a programme of activities with an adventurous activity provider. This is the best way to learn the basic skills needed to have a go safely, paying particular attention to the environment and safety issues under the expert advice and guidance of a guide.

About the NCC….

Exploring the coastline by kayaking, scrambling, fishing and swimming are all long-established activities. Coasteering is a relatively new activity and involves groups making their way around a well-established series of routes at a coastal location wearing wetsuits, helmets and buoyancy aids. As popularity for the activity within the adventure activity sector has grown, so has the number of providers. This has created the need, and desire, from many businesses and guides to come together to share best practice, be a voice for the activity and to form a representative group who are passionate about protecting and preserving our coastlines. 

In 2011, around eighty coasteering providers and interested parties such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) came together to form an organisation that would represent and advise the coasteering industry on a national scale. From this meeting, the fledgling National Coasteering Charter (NCC) was born. 

 Throughout the UK there are more than 400 members of the NCC today. They are made up of a range of companies, organisations and individual members (who are often freelance guides, sole-traders or staff at coasteering businesses). The NCC works regionally and nationally to support coasteering. It is split into regional groups that have representatives who ensure that members in their area are kept up to date with current practice, share information and learning and facilitate annual regional meetings.  

The NCC also hosts a symposium every two years that is located in a different region, where members come together for workshops, practical sessions, see practice from other regions and keep abreast of the latest guidance from the NCC. The NCC works to represent its members and the activity of coasteering with the sector. With the growth in popularity of the activity, providers of coasteering now have an organisation that can advise and represent the sector, while promoting safe practice more broadly. 

 Another key part of the work of the NCC is to support access and conservation. At many coasteering sites around the UK there is a need for providers to engage in access schemes that permit responsible and sustainable coasteering. Through our national voice, the NCC has been able to work closely with key partners and landowners to support regional groups and representative bodies to maintain and provide access for coasteering. The NCC continues to promote environmental responsibility and actively encourages a range of environment-specific topics in our regional workshops and symposiums to ensure there is always the opportunity for learning more about the unique environment we get to explore.