Surfers Against Sewage: the muck stops here by Lucy Siegle

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Not that surfing has gone entirely mainstream. "If you look at France and Spain, surfing is treated as a national sport. Once you establish that, the sport and its participants are elevated," says Sam Lamiroy, Britain's top male surfer, who learnt to surf in the Black Middens, on the mouth of the Tyne. He describes the water quality at that time as "completely disgusting". One of his surfing buddies got hepatitis B. "Imagine a footballer running out to play a cup final at Wembley and everyone had crapped all over the pitch," he says. "Well, this is our pitch."