News

Surfer Bastian Barnbeck is combining his love of waves with a devotion to education in a Panama charity focused on helping under-funded rural schools in Panama.

The 32-year-old Barnbeck was working as a management consultant when he decided to move to Panama in 2016 and launch the Waved Foundation, which primarily works with schools in remote areas of Pedasi, helping to remodel and improve facilities.

“I was looking for a country that would be small enough, to begin with, with good waves, and a great need for help with education,” Barnbeck told Lonely Planet. “Panama turned out being the perfect place.”

Panama is well-known in the surfing community, which is always seeking locales with great breaks and the unspoiled atmosphere that is rare in the world these days. Many surfers have settled in Panama, becoming part of communities up and down the coast.

The Foundation uses surfing to help raise money for small schools in rural areas. Working with the Panama Ministry of Education and the surfing community, the group focuses of schools near the water that “receive little help from the government, due to their size,” according to the website.

The group focuses on improving infrastructure, providing English and teaching kids to swim and surf culture. In addition to improving schools, the group’s objectives include promoting global wave surfing as a “sport that commits to creating awareness about the importance of education” and sharing with future generations “the passion for surfing and its social lifestyle.”

The group raises money through sponsorships, events and a unique “1 dollar per wave for local schools” program, which calls for a sponsor to donate $1 for every wave a surfer catches.

Learn more about the Waved Foundation here.