Beyond the Waves: A Closer Look at SurfAid in Rote

There are places in the world that surfers are drawn to for their waves. Rote is one of them.

Sitting at the southern tip of Indonesia, the small island is home to beautiful coastlines, uncrowded line-ups and world-class waves, including the iconic T-Land. It's the kind of place many of us dream about visiting. 

But there is another side to Rote that most surfers who visit may never see.

Earlier this year, SurfAid took a group of supporters to the island for its Rote Insight Trip; a chance to experience the waves there, but more importantly, to step beyond them and see firsthand the communities and programs their fundraising helps support.

For Make A Wave ambassador Lisette Drew, who joined the trip, it changed the way she thought about the challenge she'd been taking part in for years.

“For the past three years, I've taken part in SurfAid's Make A Wave challenge, surfing 30 days straight to raise money for remote surf communities. Every September I'd paddle out, post my fundraising link and encourage friends and family to donate. I knew the money was supporting communities in places surfers like me love to visit, but if I'm honest, I never fully understood what happened after the funds were raised. Until this trip.”

Beyond the surf

Behind Rote's incredible coastline, life can be challenging for many of the families who call the island home.

Water is scarce, particularly through the long dry season, and more than one in five children on Rote experience stunted growth due to malnutrition.

SurfAid has been working alongside communities on Rote since 2023 through Rote Malole, meaning “Rote is Great”… a locally-led program focused on improving health and nutrition.

In 2025, that work expanded to include clean water and small-scale irrigation, helping families not only access better nutrition, but have the water security and tools to grow nutritious food more sustainably. Today, the program reaches 652 families - 2,805 people across six villages. And while those numbers are impressive, it was seeing what they looked like in real life that stayed with the group.

SurfAid CEO Anna Bowden described walking through the family nutrition gardens as one of the most inspiring moments of the trip.

“Seeing mothers and families, not only growing their own food, but proudly passing on that knowledge to others in the community is what SurfAid is all about.”

Last year alone, 193 family nutrition gardens were established, while hundreds of community members received training in nutrition, growing food and maintaining the gardens. Nearly 70% of households involved are now maintaining nutrition gardens, compared with around 30% when the program began.

The little things that aren't so little

Chatting to SurfAid about the trip, one of the things that they said struck with the crew on the trip most was something many of us barely think about at home… turning on a tap.

SurfAid is working with communities to improve access to clean water, with at least nine clean water facilities planned alongside six village water committees.

For one of the group; Lisette, seeing that work firsthand put things into perspective.

“We visited the communities for only two days, but they made us all feel like family. To be welcomed into all these homes and communities on this beautiful island to see how the little things that we take for granted, like running water, make such a big impact here, makes me want to do more.”

And that is probably what we love most about SurfAid's approach. 

The work isn't about arriving in a community and telling people what they need. Local staff, health workers, volunteers and community facilitators are at the centre of creating change and passing that knowledge on.

It's designed to create something that lasts long after the fundraising campaign ends.

Why this matters to us

The ocean has given us a lot.

It's where we spend our time, where our kids are now growing up, where the idea for CORD & ROY began and where so many of our best memories have been made.

And surfing has this incredible ability to take us to places we might otherwise never experience.

That's why SurfAid's work has always felt like such a wonderful fit for CORD & ROY. It's a way for the surf community to give something back to the communities living in some of the remote places we're lucky enough to visit.

Throughout the year, we donate $1 from every Cord & Roy hat sold online to SurfAid.

This September, as part of SurfAid's Make A Wave Challenge, we're increasing that donation to $5 from every hat sold online for the entire month.

Make A Wave encourages surfers to get in the ocean throughout September and raise money for SurfAid's work in remote communities like Rote. You don't need to be an amazing surfer. It's simply about getting out there, challenging yourself and using something you already love to do to help create change somewhere else.

After seeing where that support can go, Lisette summed it up better than we probably ever could: 

“To look after our coastlines and these world class breaks, we need to look after the communities that live there.”

We couldn't agree more.

So this September, when you purchase a CORD & ROY hat online, you'll be making waves with us… helping us give a little more back to the communities connected to the places we all love to surf.

As always with love,

Soph + Dani